Sadie's 3rd Month

To start this month, we had to get through Sadie's two month check-up.  I was definitely interested to hear what our pediatrician had to say about Sadie's progress.  After hearing her cry and seeing her so upset so often, I was hoping that he could offer some explanation.  To start, I wanted to hear that she was growing and thriving as she should.  It was wonderful to hear that she was 10 lbs., 8 oz.; she was in the seventy-fifth percentile for height and head, and fiftieth percentile for weight.  For a baby that was struggling to eat successfully in between screaming, I was so happy to hear that she was doing well.

I told Sadie's doctor that she was perfection until the day after her last visit to see him, so I wanted to know what he did to her during her last visit.  He laughed, checked her out, and said that health-wise she really was still perfection.  However, he did notice that she may have a mild case of thrush, so he thought that might be to blame for the unhappy eating.  He said that she would outgrow the colic, but maybe taking care of the thrush would help things.  I hoped and prayed that he was right!  If this mild condition was the root of the problem, I was happy to nip it in the bud.  Sadly, Sadie also had to have shots during this visit.  Truth be told, she took them like a pro!  For a little baby who cries a lot, she didn't have much to say after getting her shots... thank God! 

Sadie left the doctor doing very well and having no fever after shots.  But, it was time to start the procedure to get rid of the thrush.  In a nutshell, thrush is yeast growing in the mouth because the immune system is not killing the bacteria from milk.  We had to give her drops three times a day and brush her tongue.  Try doing this on an infant- it was not fun!  To top this off, she really had started to turn a corner with her colic, and now we had given her a new reason to cry.  At one point, I even called the doctor because it wasn't worth it to be to kill a mild condition when the process of killing it made her cry for hours.  He talked me down, and we continued to brush the thrush away.

While Sadie was doing through her bout with thrush, we were finishing up on a HUGE landscaping project.  It had taken us a year to finish the front, back, and sides of our house, but we finally had our biggest project on our house complete!  It's crazy to think that we have lived here for a year already.  I think Stella enjoyed the project the most because there was always a tractor parked at our house, and she is currently obsessed with tractors!  In addition to the end of our project, we were given a happy surprise from my aunt.  My aunt had bought a pool for Mother's Day, but she never ended up using it.  She thought that our two little ladies would enjoy having a pool around, so my cousin brought over our new pool! What an extraordinary gift!  In truth, I don't know who enjoyed it more; Stella or Mommy.  It is pretty awesome having a little pool in our backyard;  I tend to slip out there during the daily nap time :).

Even though we had been very careful with Sadie, Steve and I decided that it was time for her to be a big girl.  Stella had slept in her crib from the age of about a month and a half, so we thought that Sadie was overdue.  She had after all been sleeping through the night in her pack and play for about a week now.  So, I made the sad entrance into Sadie's room for her 1st night sleeping in her crib.  In truth, it's always harder for Mom, so I had to prep myself to start having my bedroom baby-free again.  Sadie was a champ!  She slept through the night, and she didn't even seem to notice the difference.  I did pretty well too- I only slept one night on the floor this time!

Now that we had this big milestone out of the way, we had to prepare for something that I had been dreading.  After years of being a military spouse, it has been nice being a spouse to a Guard member.  They rarely work, work reasonable hours, and never leave- well, they never leave all that often.  Case in point- Steve had to leave for training in Arkansas.  He had been working with this new air frame for a year now, so we thought it was silly to send him for training now.  Regardless, he had a month away from Reno on the books.

The idea of having Steve gone for a month made me incredibly stressed.  I had handled the girls alone for the day while he was at work or school, but never entire days, and entire days back-to-back.  My dad also informed us that he had to have back surgery during this time, so I really would be flying solo.  To say the least, I was not too happy when it was time for Steve to go.  I hoped the time would pass quickly, that I could tackle the girls, and that we wouldn't kill each other while Steve was gone. Just days after Steve left it was Father's Day, so I was sad for him that he didn't get to spend his holiday with us.  However, we do have a few friends stationed down in Arkansas, so Steve was not left to celebrate alone.




With their father gone, the girls and I started to get into our groove.  I was hoping that Sadie would play along while I was on my own, but she was still very much into crying and screaming.  We had gone through the thrush treatment, but it didn't seem to be the root of what was bothering her.  All that trouble for nothing!  Stella became my right-hand woman!  She learned very quickly that Mom wasn't going to be able to do much when Sadie was having a moment, and in turn, she became quite the little helper!  She would look through her books, play quietly, and even roll my stability ball over to me when Sadie started in.  There were times would she would come over and kiss my back while I was bouncing or rocking Sadie.  The time that broke my heart was when I was trying to put Stella to bed one night, and Sadie would not stop screaming.  Stella took her book from me, blew me a kiss, said "bye, bye," and started reading her book to herself.  I was blown away by how self-sufficient and intuitive Stella had become. 

Speaking of Stella, she also had a huge milestone this month when we enrolled her in her first swimming lessons!  We had been in the pool with her a lot last summer, but she had never had any formal lessons.  I figured that more than anything it would be good for her to be around other kids.  She had her first lesson this month, and she did pretty well.  Let's just say that going underwater is not her favorite thing, but she does appreciate all the toys around the edges of the pool to give her a break.

 My dad had his back surgery as scheduled, and it went very well.  With my mom working and Steve out of town, my parents decided to call in reinforcements to help with the patient.  My sister came to be at my dad's beck and call for his first few days out of surgery.  It was great news for us because Stella LOVES her Auntie Mantha, and Sam would get a chance to meet Sadie.  Sam and Stella had a great time visiting while she was here, and I see FaceTime in Sam's future because Stella still thinks that she lives downstairs and looks for her around the house. 

Steve had been gone almost two weeks, but in this time both girls had grown so much!  Stella had matured more than I expected, and she made my life a breeze.  I've said it a lot lately, but if I were a rich woman, I would buy her a pony!  I couldn't have survived this time as a single parent if Stella had not been such a sweet and helpful little girl.  Sadie herself had changed and grown.  She had grown literally, and I swore that Steve would not believe how big she was!  One day this month, I finally got her to fit 0-3 clothes- then just like that, those were looking a little short.  More importantly, her screaming fits had lessened.  They say that babies outgrow colic, and Sadie was starting to do just that - thank God!  I think part of it was because she was becoming more active.  Tummy time and mat time became much more the norm!  



Sadie's month ended with good news- Steve was coming home early!  The instructors decided that the full course scheduled was a bit much, so now he would only be gone two weeks!  We were just says from Daddy being home when Sadie turned three months old, and I couldn't be happier to have him back so he could see how much the girls had changed in just a few short weeks.  Sadie ended the month full of smiles, chatting away every chance she got, and trying to roll over.