We have a Name!

So, after compiling a list of possible forerunners, with my eye frequently falling on more unusual names like Talia and Caren (CAHR-in), we finally chose one with meaning:

Megan Ruth

Megan means "pearl", which anyone who knows me must admit that is probably the perfect meaning for a daughter of mine. And Ruth is not only Dama's middle name (see side panel for who "Dama" is), but it was a middle name given to her that has special meaning to James's grandfather. I don't know the whole story, but I do know a woman with the same name as James's mom was very important to him. As this is a man James respects and who I have come to think of very fondly over the past few years, we felt this was the perfect middle name to pass on.

It must be the right name, too, because before James and I even officially agreed "this is it", I slipped and began calling Parasite by the name Megan, because it felt so natural to do so once the name was discussed. So, there it is. And though I feared we'd never truly pick out a name until December, I think this one may actually stick.

Belly Shot - July

Finally, there's something starting to show, lol! I put June 15th and July 15th up for comparison. I am 19 weeks as of today (Okay, I admit, July's was taken this morning on the 16th, not the 15th, but for the sake of uniformity, we'll lie and say it was the 15th). It's not much to show off, but it is there. Yay, Parasite, grow, baby, grow!

Putting away for later

The onesies I'd been dressing Cadence in for the past 8 months were, er, getting a tad small. She can still squeeze into the NB sizes, but they strained a bit at the snaps with how long she's grown. So, I pulled out the box of hand-me-downs that I'd packed away for being too big and pulled most of them out. I was given a lot of clothes for NB and 0-3 months and a lot of clothes for 6-9 months, but only a handful of 3-6 months. I'd worry more about the lack of proper fitting clothes, but many of the ones that are just labeled "3 months" fit perfectly, and she is in just a diaper more often than not anyway in this heat.

So, laundry was washed the other day and I finally pulled the hamper of clean clothes out to sort through. I'd done a quick sort through of her dresser (which was mostly empty when I finally got around to it), but the bulk of the sorting went on as I folded clean laundry. I very carefully folded each too-small piece and put them into a box.

It was so strange to do so. I'd hold a tiny NB sized onesie that I have pictures of Cadence wearing, when she was so tiny and even that small onesie was too big on her. Then, it would hit me that in 5 months, I'll be pulling them all back out again to dress someone else in Cadence's old clothes. Another little person is going to be enveloped in the slightly too-large onesies and staring up at me in that disgruntled newborn way.

For some reason, the idea of meeting and falling in love with Parasite is so much more surreal than meeting and falling in love with Cadence ever was. Folding those tiny onesies into Cadence's dresser before she was even born was sweet, a little surreal, but not nearly as surreal as folding those tiny clothes and thinking of a second little girl wearing them. So very weird... but in a very nice way.

Camping Photos

Shortly after posting my last blog entry, James's mom and brother showed up with our stuff. They were more than gracious enough to take down our tent and everything and bring it down with them so we could get Cadence home as quickly as possible last night. My camera was tucked safely with my book, so here are pictures (not as many as I'd have liked, sorry):

At Chick-Fil-A before we left, enjoying the tasty treat Jenny had given her

Hanging out in the playpen so mommy had so hands-free time

Daddy cooking up the yummy corn

Uncle Jon flying is impromptu "kite" (plastic bag with duct tape to patch a hole, and yarn for a kite string)

Camping with Infants 101

I know I promised pictures, but the camera was abandoned in the midst of our midnight flight from the campsite.

Nothing really went according to plan. Originally, we had our eye on a great little camping site just north of Kernville, but when I went to reserve it online they wanted an extra $20 in booking fees. In hindsight, totally would have been worth it. We ended up in a semi-shady, short-hike from the river site in the Lower Kern, which was considerably warmer than the nice, shady, sit-by-the-river spot we'd been eyeing in the Upper Kern. It wasn't a bad spot. It was just warm.

Too warm for Cadence. I'd imagined our nice cool spot, with the tent able to be a haven for Cadence to roll around in. However, our site had our tents pitched up a hill and a bit away from the main part of the site. So, it was either the playpen or being held. And as the heat wore on, Cadence got less flirtatious and happy to play with everyone and more fussy and wanting to be held by only me. She did well, at first, eating crackers, staring wide-eyed at the river, and sucking down some water-down ice cold juice her Dama had bought when I mentioned she'd been guzzling samples of the same stuff earlier (the organic juices at the Farmers Market, apple pomegranate. The girl likes pomegranate, lol)

After working with her for a few hours, we finally loaded her up in the car and took her into Lake Isabella for some air conditioning until the campsite cooled down. She was back to her happy self for awhile after that, except then she was tired, and she fought going to sleep. She is a breeze to put down at home, but it takes a little more work when we're elsewhere. However, even then, I think I have an easier time than many, so...

She ate baked potato, gummed graham crackers, got a tiny taste of marshmallow, loved fresh corn on the cob (cut off the cob). The pork James and I had bought and seasoned for the trip was left in the ice chest, but James did grill up the corn I'd bought (fresh from the Farmers Market, yummy!) and we feasted on cold fried chicken that his mom had brought up with her. After Cadence's nap marshmallows were roasted, but I think the heat had gotten to us all by then. I had only one s'more before trying to put Cadence to bed, and James's mom and sister weren't far behind me in following me up to the tents.

We'd brought up Cady's old bassinet. She'd fit well enough when we tried her out in it a few weeks ago, but apparently she's grown since then, so it was a tight fit. She loved that she could pop up over the edge and see me sitting there, though, which made putting her to sleep hard, but I finally did and then joined James at the campfire for the mandatory relaxing by the fire and looking up at the stars. My all time favorite part of camping.

Cadence woke up an hour later. Screaming right as 10pm (quiet time) came around. The ranger had assured us we wouldn't be in trouble for it, and many people were still talking around campfires, but I still felt bad. She finally settled fitfully for sleep right next to me. I didn't bother with the bassinet. We temporarily switched back to co-sleeping. She slept a little better, but at 11:30 she was awake again and nothing would soothe her. This time she wasn't fussing, she was full on screaming. Oops. After fighting with her for awhile, James and I accepted the inevitable, woke his mom to tell her (we'd already made iffy plans if this became the case), packed up our stuff as much as possible, grabbed Cady's blanket and formula, and came home.

Cadence slept beautifully. Except for a brief fuss fest at 6:30am (which I got up to make a bottle but in the time it took me to do that she'd settled back to sleep), she slept from midnight to 8:30.

So we've learned: 1) Pay the freaking booking fee, even if it is more expensive then the camping fee itself. 2) With reservations in advance, don't worry about showing up until the hottest part of the day is over. 3) Have Cadence used to sleeping other places and not needing routine to sleep well. 4) Never forget chapstick with sunscreen, especially when one is prone to always sunburning one's lips (ow, poor me!)

Ultrasound

I didn't get the "money shot" to scan in and let you all sweat it. I was going to simply post a copy of said "money shot" and let everyone guess. However, the doctor simply told us in passing. Kinda a let down. No fanfare, drum roll, big smile. Just a matter of fact, "Wanna know the gender?" "Sure!" "Okay, ___"

Haha. Hate me yet?

Hmm, Parasite's growing on track. Estimated due date from measurements at December 13th, so only a day or two behind what was expected, and ultrasounds at this late of date tend to be off. So, Parasite's doing just fine. Weighed in at just under 8oz. Heart beating away at 151 bpm, so good, strong, steady heartbeat. Two legs, two arms, all internal organs doing well. Brain developing properly. No abnormalities. Really, that's what this ultrasound was intended for was to measure things and make sure all developed properly. I wasn't worried, but, well, we do have a few family members with some developmental problems, so now I don't even have to worry about the slight chance that those'd be passed on. Nothing serious, but...

Oh yes, the whole reason I was anxious and eager for this ultrasound. I could've cared less that both right and left kidney are the right size and functioning. Well, I do care.

Are you guys sick of my rambling yet?

Sad story: When James and I got home, Cadence had busted her lip open again and now her entire lip is swollen way bad. Poor girl. Luckily, I had the tylenol in my purse, so we gave her that. Hopefully it'll help the swelling go down and she should be fine tomorrow. Ooh, we're going camping tomorrow night too. Should have some cute picture of Cadence eating dirt or a bug when we get back. We're making smores. I wonder how she'd react to that?

Okay, okay...

Parasite is... a girl

Did you highlight it to see? Haha...

We survived

Well, thank goodness! It looks like Cadence and I have survived her first cold. It was touch and go for awhile, but after only two sleepless nights and one semi-sleepless night, Cadence slept her full ten hours (uninterrupted again) and woke up with just the slightest bit of a stuffy nose. She hasn't coughed all morning and eagerly sucked down her full morning bottle (which did have a final dose of medicine hidden in it). I'm also feeling a bit better. A mild raw feeling to my throat, but I can swallow without wincing again.

Phew!

Still need to keep an eye on things. We thought we'd caught this cold from my youngest sister, but she was diagnosed with strep the other day. Made me nervous, but much of my research suggests that we didn't catch that after all, since both Cadence and I had other cold symptoms as well. Plus, we're outside the "normal" age range for kids that catch that (apparently, Cadence should still have an immunity she picked up from me before she was born and while breastfeeding). If she has a sudden surge in symptoms, though... that girl is getting dragged back to the doctor's office.

On a completely unrelated note: Parasite's awake right now, lol.

Cady's First Cold

Well, with breastfeeding no longer pumping up her immune system, Cadence has finally gotten her first virus. She picked up a cold from her aunt, and in turn gave it to me. Bleh.

We're surviving, somehow. Cadence is pretty much kept doped up on regular doses of Tylenol to keep the fever and resulting headache at bay, and to keep the inflammation down in her throat. She's getting lots of popsicles to soothe her poor throat, and she's unfortunately banned from most finger foods that she's so fond of, though she doesn't know why I refuse to give her the saltines.

I'm in total survival mode right now. She's not sleeping well at night, which means I've had a grand total of 6 hours of sleep over the past two nights, and no more than 2 of those were consecutive. I'm unsure if my headache is fever related or from the lack of sleep. Either way, I finally broke down and took some Tylenol myself.

Cadence is napping today and doing relatively well so far. She got two hours this morning, during which I also crashed. And fought the 2nd nap, but eventually was too tired to fight anymore. My sister's already over the worst of her cold, so there is an end in sight. We have at most another day or two of this.

My mommy's great, by the way. When it took me two hours to get a very tired, very sore, very fussy Cadence to finally cry enough to be too exhausted to fight sleep anymore, my mommy came over as soon as she could once I called her up in tears. By the time she got here, I'd finally won the battle with Cadence, but she did bring me comfort food (egg rolls and mozzarella sticks from Jack in the Box). There's nothing like comfort food to help you relax after a tough day. I'd managed to get dishes done and the living room cleaned up before she got here, so I was able to sit and chat with her and stuff my face with unhealthy food and unwind before climbing into bed (or at least trying to... Cadence woke up and it was another 3 hours before I was finally able to fall asleep). Mommy's are so great.

Pudding Face

Okay, so... after watching Cadence fill up on yet another round of saltine crackers and cereal puffs last night, I searched high and low for something new to let her try. I try to give her something new and fun every now and then so she doesn't get bored with the high chair. I ended up eyeing the last bit of chocolate pudding James had made. I know it contains a butt load of milk and dairy is discouraged and blah blah blah, but... She sure loved it! She's so used to finger foods, though, she kept trying to grab globs and get those to her mouth. She didn't even think to lick her fingers until much later.

Messy girl, lol!

Fireworks and almost ER trip

Happy fourth of July! :-) We kept Cadence up a little (okay, a lot) later than usual so she could see the fireworks that her uncle and Papa set off. When she was less sleepy and it wasn't so dark, she was fascinated by the little teasers they were playing with. However, when they pulled out the bigger, namely the louder, ones and she was now an hour past bedtime, she was not too happy. When they started popping loudly she started crying. So we covered her ears and she would stare in a sleepy, fascinated sort of way. By the end, she was spending half the time laying against my shoulder wanting to sleep, but something kept her awake. I think it was that it was dark, and to her that's "bedtime", but she wasn't in her crib, so it wasn't time to fall asleep yet. Poor confused little girl.

But... James and I had our first little scare today. We were sitting in our living room and James suddenly says: "Uhh... Sarah?" I turned from the computer and Cadence is spitting out blood and screaming. Okay, I freaked, lol. I grabbed wipes and tried to find the source of the problem. James explained he's simply set her down and she started crying. I'm having nightmare scenarios running through my head of her swallowing something when we didn't notice and the change in position causing it to cause damage. We decide to go to the E.R. I had to call my mom and ask for the $50 co-pay because we didn't have it (which had me near tears as well. I felt so helpless when I realized we couldn't pay for her medical care at such an important time. In the future, I'll remember we do have money in savings... it just totally slipped my mind, for obvious reasons).

As we were driving, James explained in more detail what had happened. He'd set her down and she'd reached for him, jerked around and then began screaming. With new details in hand, I bent over her to examine her mouth. By this point, she was cooing and smiling like nothing was wrong, though blood was drying around her lips. I pinpointed the problem. Her new bottom teeth had somehow cut through the bit of skin that went from her upper lip to her gums. I swear to you, I was so relieved to find the problem, or to realize it was basically nothing. She'll have a tender lip and gums for a few days, but popsicles and tylenol should keep the worst of it down. We called my mom and told her the E.R. trip was no longer necessary, which she was relieved to hear.

I admit, I freaked out, lol. James managed to keep pretty cool and calm, so thank goodness he was around when it happened! If I'd been home alone with no car, I probably would have fallen apart.

On the not so positive side, it seems Cady's yeast infection is complete. I suspect she might have oral thrush now, which is funny, because normally the thrush comes before the diaper rash. But, it's one of those things that will go away if I follow certain habits that I'd gotten a little lax on.

What a crazy day...

Oh, and on one final side note: Doctor appointment, ultrasound, and possible gender determination this upcoming Monday morning. Exciting!