Sweet smile...

The Swing...

My new favorite baby prop is "the swing". Hayden was never all that into it, so I thought we'd have one around just in case Livee liked it. Well, she LOVES it! That is the only place she will nap during the day. She doesn't even want me to rock her to sleep. When she starts her "sleepy" cry, I just stick her in and off she goes. The best of all is that we bought it at a consignment sale, so I don't feel like we wasted any money! It's great that she will sleep there, but Hayden is still a little loud around her and she wakes up sometimes. Oh well...maybe the little darling will get into her room to sleep sometime before she's a year old!

Another thing I'm learning are her cries. I always thought it was weird when moms said they could distinguish one cry from another, but with Livee I can. I guess it's because she cries so much more than Hayden ever did. She has a "sleepy" one, a "gassy" one, and a "hungry" one. The hungry cry is more like she's whining at first and then if I wait too long, she gets downright MAD. She even loses her breath she's crying so hard! Bless her heart. It's so hard being a baby.

The Big 04!

Hayden from 1 to 4

4 Generations of LaVecchia's in 2005 and 2009.

Hayden's new Bumblebee helmet. You see who's wearing it.

Alrighty!

Cousin Carson got to come and party with us!

Par-tay cake. Tasted better than it looked!

Birthday gifts at home from us.

Hayden had his 4 year old well-check visit this past Tuesday. He is 39 1/4 inches tall and weighs almost 35 pounds. He has 20/20 vision and passed his hearing test. His iron levels are good also. He was such a big boy during the whole thing, but he did have to have 3 vaccinations and boy was that not fun! He only cried while they were doing them and then we gave him a new little Transformer as a "surprise" for being so good. After all, it was a bit traumatic! The Nurse Practicioner asked him questions about his family and if he knew what a stranger was. It surprised us that he actually did. I don't think we've ever sat down and talked to him about that. Maybe he heard it in preschool last year or something was all we could figure out. He said "Strangers are bad guys." Well, close enough. Of course the little drama king milked the pain of the shots for all it was worth. He couldn't walk at first, then he laid in our bed all afternoon and asked me to bring him juice and grapes. He just cracks me up sometimes. We will probably go back for the flu vaccine and swine flu vaccine, so we're not looking forward to that! But with little Livee in the house and Hayden in preschool, I just don't want to risk it this year. Above are some pictures through the years with a couple from his birthday party.

Playing Catch Up

Well, our PC is getting fixed, so here I am once again on Dave's laptop trying to do a post. I still don't have any pictures, but stay with me and I will hopefully get some posted this weekend somehow. Apparently our computer had a nasty nasty virus, so the whole hard drive had to be reformatted. Anywho, some updates: Hayden, Livee and I went to Muscle Shoals for almost a week and stayed. It was nice for everyone to get to see Livee and to be able to get out a little more than I am able to here. I washed most of our dirty laundry while I was there, so I only had the laundry here to catch up on. And a great surprise was that Dave had cleaned the house up, so it was not nasty when we got home! Hayden said "Look, it's clean. This is great! How'd you do that Moma?" Ha!


On Friday I had my 6 week post-partum checkup. My uterus is back to it's normal size, but my incision was still red. She said that she thought I had a little yeast infection on it. Before you ask, yes, I do have a belly overhang right now, so the incision stays a little moist. Dr. Hutchins prescribed a Nystatin cream which I apply twice a day and it's now looking much better.


Now for a little more to this story: Livee had also been having major spit up and gas issues basically since she had been born. She has also had a recurring diaper rash. Her little bottom has only been clear for maybe 7 days of her life. I had already decided to cut out dairy earlier last week to see if cow's milk protein in my breastmilk might be the problem. After I had gone to my doctor, I stopped by the pediatrician's office (just one floor down) and asked the nurse for a prescription cream for Livee's bottom. So we got our creams and came home. Saturday morning I was looking at a breastfeeding website (Kellymom.com) and was curious about Thrush (yeast infections). To my astonishment, every symptom that Livee and I were having (I had some shooting pains in my breasts also) matched the symptoms of yeast infections in both of us. So, I called the pediatrician and had them call in Nystatin Oral for Livee and I got a dose of Diflucan. Yesterday she seemed to be feeling a ton better! Very few gas pains and able to nap during the day!


We are not out of the woods yet, as I have to be very careful for about a month, but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am still off of dairy as well as sugar and very few carbs. I had been putting a vinegar solution on her bottom and my incision, but that seemed to irritate more than help. I'm not using wipes on her right now either (just rinsing her in the sink) because those can irritate the yeast. Her bottom is still not 100% better, but it's getting there. So, for now, that's what our world consists of. But the best of all is that Livee started really smiling a ton this week! She loves it when we come talk to her in her bassinet when she's woken up. What a sweetie!


Tomorrow night I get to visit Hayden's preschool and meet his teacher! We are very excited about where he is going this year. They seem to keep the kids very busy and structured, which is exactly what Hayden needs at school. He will have Spanish and Music once a week each, and they study a letter each week as well as a different unit. The teacher seemed really nice when I talked to her on the phone, so I think he's going to have a great year.

Hayden's Birthday

Hayden had a great birthday party. All of the kids had a great time bowling and it was the least stressful party for me so far...even with a 1 month old! I would definitely use that bowling alley again because the people were so nice. All of Hayden's grandparents made it and two of his uncles, plus a set of great-grandparents and 9 of his friends. Hayden got some great gifts and quite a bit of birthday money, half of which he has already spent on a couple of more toys. All in all, I think he had a great birthday. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures right now because our PC is infected with a ton of viruses and Dave is still trying to get it cleaned up. I will post them later! I did get to make the cake after all. Next year will be a cake with little to no decorative parts, though. I forget how long it takes from year to year. It ended up tasting really good, but I wish we didn't have so much left over! It's not helping my post-baby weight loss at all!

Update to Livee's diaper rash dilemma: I have at least 5 different types of diaper rash cream in my arsenal now. Those two really bad spots were finally clearing up when 2 more started to appear over the weekend as well as a regular rash. I had been using Huggies diapers because Pampers Swaddlers didn't seem to fit right at first. Well, I switched back to Swaddlers on Sunday and the rash started clearing up by Monday. I am using a combination of A&D and Desitin Original on the rash. Needless to say, we won't be using anything besides Swaddlers for a while (at least until I get the cloth diapers ready to use...yes, I am using cloth diapers this time - it should be interesting and I will be sure to blog about it - I will be using BumGenius to start with - check them out at bumgenius.com).

We're headed to the Shoals on Friday for 5 nights. I will be hitting up the consignment sale on Friday night, so hopefully I can get some good deals for Livee. My sweet sister-in-law sent a bunch of 0-3 month clothing, so I don't need much of that. I will need to get socks, burp cloths, bibs, 3-6 month winter clothes (mostly holiday and casual since I have a ton of dresses), and 6-9 month winter clothes. I don't think we need any shoes since she's still not really fitting into any. I also thought about trying to get a stationary jumper or exersaucer because she will be using those before the spring consignment sale, which is hard for me to believe! Hayden doesn't need anything because we already got him one pair of casual fall shoes and my sweet cousin has already sent 4T clothing for him. Besides, when you start getting into the bigger sizes the clothing looks really worn because the kids where it for so much longer.

1 month old!

Well, Livee is almost one month old! Man, time has flown by. What a different baby she is from Hayden! I have said it several times, and I'll say it again...I just don't remember it being this hard. I feel like I am picking and choosing whether to eat or take a shower half of the time. Livee is sleeping pretty well at night so far (thanks to the miracle blanket), but during the day it is harder to get her to stay down for a nap. And I think since she's going a little longer between feedings during the night (4 or 5 hours), that has made her want to eat every 2 1/2 hours during the day. I just keep telling myself that this time is temporary and by about 6 weeks, I should be able to get her on more of a schedule. Also, she is still pretty gassy and spits up quite a bit and she has a bad diaper rash right now. I think girls are just different in that area b/c Hayden probably only had a rash twice the entire time he wore diapers, but I know that my niece had a bad one as a newborn as well. I have been rinsing her off and letting her dry today, but if it's not better by tomorrow, I'm thinking of calling the doctor and getting a prescription cream.

Yesterday was my first official night at home alone and it went pretty well. It's hard for Hayden to understand that we can't really go anywhere though. After all, I am still recovering from a c-section, but he doesn't know that. He also wants attention whenever I'm holding or feeding Livee, but once I can actually put her down he leaves me alone. He and I really need some mother/son time, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Our friends from Birmingham, the Wood's, came over on Saturday and spent the day with us taking pictures. (If you would like to book Steve for some pictures, then let me know and I will pass along his information.) I've gotten a few so far, and they have turned out great! I can't wait to see the rest of them and hopefully get a birth announcement in the mail before too long!

Hayden's birthday is this Friday. Luckily, I had the forethought to book his party at a bowling alley where they provide everything except the cake. I am still going to try to make his cake I think, so we'll see. I may end up making a quick run to Publix on Friday though if I don't think I can do it. I really want to because it is just something that I like to do and a little tradition that I think is important. He is very excited about his birthday and has been talking about it for months, so I hope that he's not let down once it's over!