SICK

Yes, that pretty much sums up 2011 for the Smiths to date. Jeff came down with a nasty bronchitis virus in January - it lasted 4 weeks. I caught said virus mid January - it lasted 5 weeks, and during 3 of those weeks I was unable to taste a single thing. How often we take for granted simple things like our ability to taste and smell. That was by far the WORST part of this whole ordeal. Forget sleepless, coughless nights, stuffy noses and endless boxes of kleenexes - not being able to taste food for almost an entire month - TORTURE. As they always say - how often we don't appreciate things until they're gone. And for those of you thinking why didn't you just go to the doctor - well Jeff did. Two times in fact, for 3 rounds of antibiotics. And what did they tell him - it was a virus, which means the drugs did him no good, they just kept him from getting any sicker. So when I started coming down with the same symptoms, I avoided the $150 doctor visit and had a ZPAC called in just to be safe. I did end up staying sick a week longer than Jeff, but I think that was more a result of being a rundown mom than anything. Babygirl decided to cut 2 teeth during this sickfest, which made for a week or two of very little sleep. But the story doesn't end here. After a month and a half of the bronchitis virus, the stomach bug hit our house this past weekend. Babygirl and daddy came down with it Friday night, and I thought I was free and clear (despite being puked on several times) until my stomach started rolling Monday night. Thankfully I still had some phenergan left from my early pregnancy issues, so after I had sufficiently emptied my stomach, I took my pill, threw up once more an hour later and was finished. I will have to say, however, that being pregnant and very sick for three months really puts a 24 hour stomach bug in perspective. This was even noted by my husband, who commented that I was oddly cheerful considering the nature of my illness. What can I say - when you throw up 3-6 times a day for 3 months, a 12 hour stint really isn't that bad. And since the stomach bug does appear to be going around these days, take it from the vomit veteran, don't drink water, drink sprite or gingerale (I go through about 2 liters everytime I get sick). I won't go into details, but trust me, it helps a lot. And get some phenergan if you can.

Much to my delight, my taste buds returned in full force on Valentine's Day, just in time to enjoy a lovely chilled glass of wine alongside my husband's fabulous gourmet meal. That is my standing request for all Valentine's and Anniversary holidays - a home cooked meal from hubby. He loves to watch cooking shows and always comes up with some really tasty dishes. This year it was a portabello mushroom appetizer, spinach, candied walnut and blue cheese salad with a homeade balsamic vinagrette dressing, penne pasta with chicken in a tomato sauce served with baked artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes, and ice cream for dessert. Just perfect! Although Jeff would love you to think he cooked every bit of that himself, in actuality he was running late and got several things premade (thus it only took 30 minutes to throw everything together). But as always, he doctored each of the dishes up with his signature flair.

We also enjoyed our first fine dining date since baby at my favorite restaurant, Bravos. I have been craving Bravos since before Emery was born - we actually went there the night of her due date, but they were closed. It a lovely meal (despite the fact that Jeff started getting sick there and couldn't touch his entree), but Brooke you will be very dissapointed to know they no longer have your shitake mushroom and chicken pasta dish. In fact, they really don't have any good chicken pasta dishes, which is what I really wanted. They had a beef and portabello mushroom dish, but I wasn't in the mood for beef. I ended up getting a cajun pasta dish, and it was just OK- did not have a whole lot of flavor in my opinion. I think my cajun jumbapasta dish is much tasiter. Thankfully our calamari, spincach salad and my all time favorite creme brulee definitely made up for the less than stellar entree. And thanks to my sweet sister who watched baby girl while we went out - and ended up getting puked on herself because I didn't know she was sick. I am just praying she doesn't get sick too!

Despite being sick for months, we've still managed to get out and enjoy the fabulous weather this past week. Hubby and I LOVE a good long spring stroll, and so does baby girl. And as for sweet baby girl - she is growing like a weed these days. Big news for this month - she is now on formula. Long story short - nursing had become a less than pleasant experience since about 6.5 months. I've always felt that my milk irritated her stomach no matter what I did or didn't eat, but it had gotten to the point where she would only drink an ounce or two at a time, and would not take any more without a huge fight. I felt like I was torturing her trying to get her to eat. After 3 weeks of this (really just on the weekends because Mon - Thurs she got bottles) I decided enough was enough, and started to tranisition to formula. She didn't like it at first, but after a week decided she liked it better than mom's milk. In fact, for the first time ever she is actually drinking all of her 5oz bottles at daycare. It was a hard decision to transition, especially since I still have plenty of milk and feasibly could have kept pumping for another several months, but since my milk seems to cause her distress, didn't see the point in that. So this is week 2 of the great dry up, and I will have to say things have not gone as quickly as I'd hoped. I was hoping the stomach bug would do a major number for me in that area, but no such luck. If anyone has any suggestions, please send them on! On a positive note, last week was the first time in 5.5 months I haven't had to drag my pump to the office. I thought I would be elated, but I was actually kind of sad about it. Kind of the end of an era I guess. But as much as I never thought I'd ever say this - I am looking forward to being able to start running again. Wow - those hormones must have really done a number on me! Ok back to baby girl - forget baby food the girls love the real thing. She does eat babyfood at daycare for convenience sake, but at home it's whatever mom can put together that seems healthy. She's had waffles, eggs, chicken, cheese, pizza crust, bananas, peaches, bread, pasta, rice, beans - and loves it all so far. I've pretty much thrown all of the rulebooks on introducing foods out the window and adopted more the anything goes approach. She is cutting 2 more teeth as we speak (for a total of 4), and although is not crawling or scooting yet, is rolling everywhere. She is also going through some major separation anxiety at the house - we can't step out of the room for a second without a meltdown. This could also be due to the fact that she is teething and doesn't feel good, but it makes it challenging to get things done at times. The funny thing is she doesn't cry when we leave her with other people, like at daycare or the nursery, just at home when we leave the room. Crazy girl! She is still such a joy though, and we love her to pieces even when she is screaming.

Kisses

After 3 (almost 4) weeks of bronchitis and colds, the Smiths are finally on the mend. It started with Jeff and a nasty case of bronchitis - which took 2 rounds of antibiotics to beat. Then I got it and finally started feeling better this week after 2 weeks of misery . Baby girl just had a runny nose, thank goodness. But she also cut her first tooth in the middle of this sick fest, so between that and waking up all hours of the night because of one of us was coughing, Monday was the first full night of sleep I've had in over a month! Man that felt good!

Emery has been talking up a storm these days. She was kind of clingy over the weekend, and we're hoping it was just her first tooth coming in but could very well be the start of separation anxiety, as she's right at the age where it starts. She's been eating a lot the past couple of weeks. She still doesn't really get the whole feed herself thing yet (gets the food to her mouth then drops her hand like she's forgotten it's there), but she still loves to eat. I have to be very careful about what I feed her for dinner because of overnight stomach issues (see previous post). For the past week she's had mashed banana, avacado and cereal for dinner, which seem to work well. Monday night she seemed exceptionally hungry so I gave her some peas in addition to her main fare, and she woke up in the middle of the night again. So we were back to the usual last night. I hate to feed her the same thing every night, but until her stomach evens out I don't see that we have much of a choice. I haven't found anything she doesn't like yet, although I'm sure that's coming. I haven't really been good about introducing things slowly either, but aside from the rash on her face from oatmeal and a different type of cereal, shes tolerated everything else pretty well.

Emery loves it when we kiss her, and lately she's started putting her slobbery mouth on my cheek to give me a kiss. It is the cutest thing. I ask her to "Give mommy a kiss" and she slobbers all over my cheek, then I of course cover her cheeks with kisses in return. It's probably the cutest thing she's done so far, in my opinion. It's amazing to me how quickly they learn - I had no idea she would even know what a kiss meant at this age. They are little sponges, thats for sure. She also goes "mmmmm, mmmmm" the entire time she is eating. I realized this is because that is what I do when I feed her - I'm always saying "mmmmm, this is good." So she says it back to me now. It's so cute.

I mentioned earlier that she cut her first tooth over the weekend. We are still nursing, but I'm waiting to see if she starts biting or not before I decide if we're going to keep going for a few more months.

I have not been able to taste a single thing for the past 2 weeks, and as a result have finally dropped a few pounds for the first time in five months. I feel so sorry for anyone who has no sense of taste or smell - you don't realize how much those senses affect you until they are gone. I have no desire to eat anything I can't taste, so have essentially been eating just enough to keep my stomach from shriveling up.

That's all for now!