Spring News Update

May 26, 2009: I have been a bit delinquent with the blog in light of that fact that so much has happened lately. Biggest news is that Casey celebrated her second birthday almost on month ago. We had a party with the girl son James's hockey team and also made her a cake on her real birthday.

She nibbled on it each time but is certainly not a cake lover! Seemingly overnight Casey realized she should start doing some whining and saying "NO" to us so that she did not miss out on any time in her terrible twos. She is still a very nice little girl, she is just very independent and strong willed. She has started using her little toilet and having a lot of success with it. When we are home in the house we keep her naked on the bottom half and if she is naked she will now always use the toilet for both "pee pee" and "poop poop". We made a big chart on the wall where she gets to put stickers if she uses the toilet. She went to the doctor and weighed about 23.5 pounds which is the 10th percentile and was in the 56th percentile for height. She is very loving towards Julia which is so nice. She loves being my helper and always wants to get Julia a new diaper or throw the old ones away. She eats pretty well, breakfast is by far her best meal. She will typically eat 3 hard boiled eggs, a pancake, a cup of yogurt, and a bowl full of fruit. Lunch she eats a little less, and dinner hardly anything. Her vocabulary continues to amaze me, besides mixing up "my" and "your" it is like speaking to a normal person. We've loved getting outside in the spring weather. Casey held her first frog recently and also went to her first fair where, much to her parent's delight, she went on a few rides by herself. At bed time now she is always bargining for extra time awake.


















































Now to Julia's update.


I am excited to say that she is a nice, happy normal baby now!! She does not cry anymore and is smiley and so lovable. I cannot even tell you what a relief it is after 5 and a half long months of crying. Once we put her on formula (I only took about 10 days to wean completely) her weight shot up and she became so much happier. I'm sure she was still colicky because in the old days she would cry even right after being fed. But as the colic subsided I think she was hungry too. After having gained only 1 ounce in a month we put her on the scale during Casey's 2 year visit, and in one week of formula she gained a pound and a half! At her 6 month check up which was really like6 and a half months she weighed 13 pounds 14 ounces, so in one month had gained 2 pounds 10 ounces. She is back on the growth charts and her weight is now 7th percentile. All her growth curves took a huge turn back onto the charts so we were so relieved that nothing was wrong with her. Not to mention how amazing it has been that she is no longer so miserable and crying. Our doctor continues to tell us she is fine developmentally. She is talking quite a bit. She says 'baba' and this weekend added 'da da' to her repertoire. She still loves to growl and also likes dong raspberries. She is not doing anything that Casey was doing but I just have to keep reminding myself how Casey was doing stuff way ahead of her time. Julia has only rolled over from her back to belly one or two times. She can do the other way just fine. She sits up pretty well, but definitely not on her own, if she leans any direction she would topple over. All in good time, for now we are just happy that she is healthy and happy. She was baptised a week ago and was a very good girl for it. Her God parents are Mark and Jen. We had it done here in Watertown and all our families we re able to come.



As for James and I things are going well. He is in the final push, and school will be completely finished in about 2 weeks. We are still waiting to hear where we will be living next year and should be finding out fairly soon. Unfortunately we have to move out of our house because it belongs to a faculty member who was on sabbatical this year. Most likely we will be moving into a dorm apartment but we are just waiting to hear which one. I took a road trip to Pittsburgh a few weeks ago with Robin to see Game 3 of the Penguins/Capitals game and got to meet Frankie Adams who was just born the day before.


Trying to get our summer plans figured out too. James will have to work a few hockey camps and do some recruiting and we hope to take some real vacation time.

JJ The Tiny

April 23, 2009: Julia had her 5 month check up today ( a few weeks late). She is doing fine developmentally although I had been worried she was behind. I am just comparing her to Casey who did everything extremely early so I was worried about Julia but the doctor assured me she is just fine. The problem however is not in her developmental milestones but in her size. She gained only 1 ounce in the past month which has her in only the 1st percentile for weight. Her height has also plateaued. The doctor said that if she does not gain weight by her next check up a month from now then we will have to run some tests on her thyroid and growth hormone levels to be sure that everything is OK. I am hopeful that she is just a petite baby like Casey was and that she will find her own growth curve eventually. She has been on solid food for a few weeks now, eating rice cereal in the morning and cereal and veggies at night. Today I gave her a bottle of formula for the first time. She has never had a bottle so it was a difficult adjustment for her but she eventually took it. I am going to start weaning her off of breast feeding and onto formula sooner than planned in the hopes that it will help her gain weight. Besides that, she is doing well. She does this new thing where she likes to growl all the time. We find it hilarious. She is sleeping better, usually from 7pm-7am with one feeding around 4am. She naps at 9 am and 1pm for anywhere from an hour to two hours. Her stamina to stay awake and content is getting better, although she still does not like to be left to entertain herself in the excersaucer, or on the floor with toys, she really prefers to be held. I think that is a result of the 4 and a half months with colic where she was held to be soothed for so long. Anyways, overall she is doing much better but now we must focus on getting her to gain weight.

Easter & First Hair Cut

April 17, 2009: Here are some pictures from Easter. We went down to Mark and Jen's house for breakfast and an Easter egg hunt. Jen also gave Casey her first haircut!

Spring Break

March 30, 2009: Today is the last day of spring break. We had a great trip to Florida.

The girls both slept and napped very well down there which was great. Casey is like a fish in the pool. All she wants to do is go under over and over again.

She just dives off the steps and lays face down. We're trying to teach her to get herself to the edge of the pool by kicking and reaching for the side. It is a mixed blessing that she is so comfortable in the pool. It makes it a lot of fun but you cannot turn your head on her for one second. We had her going under to get pool toys at the bottom of the steps, jumping off the side, doing a cannon ball when we throw her and lots of fun stuff. Check out the little video clip below here...




She is starting to exhibit a sense of humor and likes to play this game with James where she says two certain words incorrectly so that he will correct her. Out of the blue she'll say to him "sleep SLACK" and he'll teasingly say back, "no, no, no sleep SACK" (a sleep sack for those w/o kids is like a wearable blanket they sleep in). After going back and forth on that word for a minute she'll say "back wheels" and he'll correct her with "backwards". She does it intentionally to get a rise out of James and she thinks it is hilarious. The third of her two-year molars has just popped thru her gum so we are almost in the clear in terms of teething for Casey. Her last one will probably come in near when Julia's first does. While we were in Florida Casey had her first bite of ice cream. She licked her lips, and softly said 'that's good'. It was so cute.


Julia had her 4 month check up (which was really at 4 1/2 months of age) a few weeks ago and weighed only 11 pounds 3 ounces which is just the 4th percentile for weight. She's around the 50th percentile for height. Just like with Casey the doctor was not concerned about her weight, it just seems that we grow 'em long and lean. We have been doing some sleep training on Julia to try and make some improvements in her sleeping habits. About three weeks ago we just lay her down in her crib at 7 pm and let her cry. She is usually pretty good about going to bed at 7pm b/c she is pretty tired by then. The first night she cried for a total of 3 hours in the middle of the night. The second night it was only 50 minutes and continues to get better. I only go in now to feed her if it has been 4 hours since her last feeding. So as of now nights go like this, asleep at 7pm, feed usually around 11 pm and 3 am and then up at 7am. Most nights she goes right back to sleep and there is little or no crying in between feeds. Right now she is sick with a cough and very congested so it has not been great. I've stopped helping get her to sleep for her naps too and just let her lay in her crib and figure it out. Usually she cries for a maximum of 15 minutes or so before getting to sleep. Despite the improvements in her sleeping habits she is still a very difficult and high maintenance baby. She really cries a lot still and requires so much of my attention. She pretty much wants to be held all the time. We are starting her on solid food again today. We had tried it earlier when the doctor advised it for her reflux but only did that for a few days. Today we are starting up for real with some thicker rice cereal and we'll try some veggies tonight. Today she was leaning in for the cereal and seemed anxious for the next bite.

Julia still is not rolling over. She has done it a few times from her belly to her back but not the other way. She loves grabbing her toes now and if I recall from Casey that might mean she'll use her legs to swing into a roll over before too long. She has also started drooling a lot and putting her fingers in her mouth so I think she is starting to teethe. Julia also discovered her thumb and is officially a thumb sucker. I was not thrilled b/c it will be a habit I have to break later on, but with this kid I will take any help I can get, and she can find her thumb in the middle of the night without me having to go in and give her the paci.

Baby J

March 1, 2009: So all of the tests on Julia came back negative. She is therefor off of her reflux medication and now we just have to wait it out. Part of me wanted a diagnosis so that we had something concrete to treat however I guess this is better. Our pediatrician said he would rather observe her for a few more weeks rather than subject her to more testing at this point. He firmly believes we just have a fussy baby and that there is not some serious underlying problem that we are overlooking. Around four months a lot of fussy babies tend to turn a corner for the better, so if she remains very fussy long after that point then we will move on to blood work. When I suggested taking her to a chiropractor her was supportive of it. It is a method I have read about a lot in helping colicky babies. At this point we'll try anything!
Another thing on Casey...right now she loves imitating James's morning routines in the bathroom. She always wants to use "armpit" which is deodorant. We gave her an old one of ours that has nothing left in it to use. She also gets up on the toilet, leans over to the sink to turn to the water on, and puts water in her hair like James does sometimes. We find it very funny. Casey still loves hockey and wants us to take her skating all the time. Here is a shot of her from this week, she gets on the ice with James at the end of practice. She loves the girls on his team and they think she is adorable too. Also there is a picture of Julia with a mean scratch she gave herself with her fingernail. Delinquent mom didn't get to them in time.

3 Month Check Plus Other Stuff

February 24, 2009: Last week we took Julia in for her 3 month visit, which was actually when she was 3 1/2 months old. Normally I don't know if you do a 3 month visit but we are spacing her shots out so we go in every month. She weighed 11 pounds 3 ounces which is the 12th percentile and was 23.75 inches long which is 47th percentile. Another peanut! My biggest concern to discuss with the doctor was how bad her "colic" was and how our nights had been getting worse instead of better. While we were in Florida I was up every hour with her, it was brutal. He now thinks it sounds more like reflux than colic so he switched her to a new medication and has her started on rice cereal early to settle things in her stomach. I feel so terribly that I have been listening to her cry for so long under the assumption that it was colic and waiting for her to grow out of it when I could have been doing something for her all along. Anyways, after 4 days on the new meds and no noticeable improvement I called again and said we need to do something more aggressive. So tomorrow morning we are headed to the children's hospital in Hartford for a barium swallow test which will confirm if it is in fact reflux and allow her to begin a stronger medication. So I feel good that we are hopefully on the right track towards helping her be a happier baby and making life easier for the rest of us because it has been a long four months. More to come on this subject after tomorrow's trip.

Casey is still great. Here are some tid bits on what she has been up to lately: When I give her a snack I will put goldfish in a bowl and she loves transferring them to other places and/or receptacles. For instance, she will carry them one by one and drop them into the little hood compartment of her plastic car. Then for days she has a secret little stash. Her two year molars are breaking thru her gums on the bottom set, no sign of the top ones yet. She is into eating sandwiches now instead of just ham or turkey on the plate. Her favorite sandwich is turkey and jelly. Who wouldn't love that combo?!

A little update

January 29, 2009: Casey turns 21 months old tomorrow. Casey's newest thing is "I do it myself". She's putting her socks on, tries to get her pants on, her boots on, her hat and mittens on. It is funny and definitely consistent with her strong, independent personality. Sometimes it is helpful when she can do something herself, but sometimes it just makes the process longer.

One thing I love about Casey is when she has woken up from a nap but is still sleepy she hooks her thumb into the edge of her blanket and rubs it on her other palm or her feet, arm, neck or cheek. It is very cute. She is in such a great time of her life. She can be a handful, but I worship her.

The fall season for her monkey business class ended last week. We decided not to sign up for the spring session and are going to try out a swim class instead. This morning we went to the first one and it was a riot. It is in a hotel pool and there are 4 other moms and daughters in the class. The teacher is great and sings songs and plays games with the kids that encourage them to put their faces in the water, blow bubbles, lay on their backs, etc. Casey seemed to really enjoy her self and so did I. We have a fun little weekly schedule set up right now. On Mondays and Wednesdays a group of moms at Taft bring our kids up to the gym and we put the kids in a squash court. We take turns working out and watching the kids, its fun for them and nice for us to get a chance to work out. Tuesdays the moms at Taft started a little music class. We figured why do we need to pay someone else to tell our toddlers to shake this, or sing itsy bitsy spider when we can do it. And now Thursdays we go to swim class.

Julia is doing well I guess. I cannot believe she is 12 weeks already. Colic is a tough time to go through. She really has very little routine and there is so little time in her cycles to get much interactions and developmental stuff in. I used to spend so much time with Casey hanging toys in front of her, doing tummy time and all sorts of things. With Julia it is just eating, sleeping, and crying (or trying to keep her from crying). There are getting to be more and more moments when she is happy so hopefully we are on some path towards the end of colic. I really think it will make things so much easier when she settles down and gets herself into some sort of routine. She is smiling a lot more and makes cute cooing sounds during her happy times. She is really into staring at her hands and also sucking on them. She has started raising her head up like she is doing crunches. She has started batting at the animals that swing above her head on the activity mat and will reach out to grab toys a little too. At my parents house she loved the floral print on the couch and would reach out and scratch the cushions. We spent the weekend in Greenwich because I was sick with mastitis and our heat was out on Saturday morning (a bad combo considering I was shaking to death b/c of my fever).
People always ask if she looks like Casey and I don't know the answer. I dug up a picture from when Casey was about 12 weeks. I see similarities but Julia definitely has her own look. You can decide for yourself...

2 Month Check Up

January 8, 2009: Julia had her two month check up today. She weighed 10 pounds 3 ounces. I didn't even get the chance to ask what percentile that is. Normally I might have called the office to ask them, but since I talked to them on the phone nearly everyday over Christmas break I felt I shouldn't call anymore :) Julia is doing fine, but we need to do more tummy time with her. He said her head is getting a teeny bit flat in the back. Not a problem yet, but that we need to watch for it. I could have seen that coming. Julia gets hardly any tummy time. She is so fussy all the time and she hates being on her belly, so with that combo it is hard to find an appropriate time to put her down.

A Crazy Month

January 7, 2008: Poor Julia, she is already a classic, neglected second child. She has practically no photos, video footage, no baby book, rarely gets a bath and no regular blog action. The Last month has been very rough. The girls have been sick constantly for 5 or 6 weeks now. It started on Nov 22nd with Casey vomiting/stomach bug for a week, then a cold, then pneumonia, then Julia got RSV, then Casey went back for a second round of stomach bug which was much worse because she became so weak. On Christmas morning she was like a drunk doe bumping into walls when she was walking on her weak little twig legs. Poor thing. Anyways, it is now 2009 and I think (fingers crossed) that we are healthy. Julia has a slight sniffle. If this were my first child I would probably be at the emergency room but now I don't even think twice about a little cold.
Julia has grown a lot. I will find out exactly how much tomorrow when she goes in for her 2 month check up. We have come to realize she is a colicky baby, which is just one more thing to throw into the mix of having two kids under two. Just when you get Casey down to bed at night and feel like you survived another day and get ready to put your feet up Julia kicks into high gear with crying. It peaked at Christmas with two full days of nearly inconsolable crying. We took her to the doctor in Boston to make sure nothing was wrong and thats when they uttered the word colic. Luckily it did seem to get a little better and most babies get rid of it by 3 months so hopefully only a few more weeks to go. She has gotten better though and has definitely increased her awake and content times. She has really started smiling and interacting with us which is great. I am constantly comparing her to Casey and she is not where Casey was developmentally at this stage. I think Casey rolled over for the first time at this age and Julia is not close to doing things like that. It is hard not to compare your kids but everyone is different and we just need to get used to that. Also Casey set the bar pretty high because she did do (and continues to do) a lot of things very early. Sleep has been so so with Julia. Some nights are great, she will go to sleep between 10-11pm and wake up between 4-5am, then go back down until 7 or 8. But some nights are not so good, she will wake at 2am to eat and then take an hour and a half to get back to sleep. Those nights are not fun. She still spits up quite a lot so I will have to ask the doctor about that tomorrow.

Casey is going thru a bit of a rough patch right now. I think it has been sort of a perfect storm of events on her life. With her continued sickness, Julia's arrival, being cooped up in the house due to Julia or the weather, and vacations disrupting her routine. She has been acting very cranky and I am nervous it is the start of the terrible two's. She whines a lot more than she used to. My parents keep telling me it is because she was sick for so long that it took a huge toll on her. So I am hoping they are right and this will go away soon. Besides a little more whininess, Casey is still a riot. She loves singing songs and seems to have an amazing ability to memorize lyrics. She knows her alphabet, twinkle twinkle, all the songs on this Raffi cd we have, row row row your boat, and a bunch more. She continues to be very nice to her sister.

We spent a week in Boston over Christmas, then a day in Greenwich. We came back to Taft while James did some recruiting for a few days and then headed to Florida for a few days. Florida was nice but Casey was still sick and cranky and not as fun as we would have hoped. Anyhow, we are back at Taft now and starting to get back into a routine. Now that Julia is two months old she can go out in public more (the first two months are crucial for keeping them well), so we have been to the dining hall for lunch. People are still bringing us dinners as baby gifts every other night so that has been helpful. As for me, I am hanging in there. I have moments where I can manage things well and moments where it is stressful and exhausting. The worst part for me is feeling like I can't give either girl enough of me. If I am paying attention to Casey and giving her what she wants (someone to play with constantly and romp around on the floor with) then I am ignoring Julia. But when Julia needs me, for instance this morning she was crying a lot and needed to be held a lot. I would start a game or book with Casey and need to say, 'sorry, I need to pick up your sister'. Julia does not get a fraction of the attention that Casey got at this age and that worries me as a mom, but as James says, you just have to do your best for them and let the chips fall as they may.

Here are a ton of pix from December, Christmas, Florida, etc.

1 Month Old

December 4, 2008: I cannot believe how quickly Julia's first moth has gone by. It is SO different with your second baby. You just do not have the time to obsess over them the way you do with your first. Sometimes it makes me sad, like I do not know her as well as I knew Casey. I do not know her signals and faces and patterns as quickly as I did with Casey. But on the other hand I have not stressed over her the way I did with Casey. You just keep moving and don't worry about every little detail like you do with the first. I know for sure that the time has passed so much more quickly because of it and also because of how much attention Casey requires.
Julia has had a good first month. We moved her out of our room 5 nights ago. I was nervous about it, seeing as we kept Casey in our room for about 6 months. Julia makes so much noise when she sleeps, she grunts and makes these throat clearing sounds that are very annoying when you are trying to sleep right next to her. It is not ideal to have to get up and go to another room to feed her instead of laying in your own bed, but hopefully we'll end up getting more sleep because of the change. In fact, the last two nights have been great. She eats around 10:30, and we are all asleep in our own beds around 11pm. The past two nights she has not cried until 4 or 4:15 and after eating has gone right back down until 7 or 7:30.
Julia has had a little bit of baby acne, but it has never gotten too bad, at least not yet. Her eye lashes are becoming more noticeable. She takes a paci but does not love it the way Casey did. I think I have seen the first hints of a smile from Julia, but just fleeting moments.
I already feel like every entry I write about Julia is how her habits compare to Casey's.
Julia seems to be doing better since she has been on the Pepcid for her acid reflux. I had been giving her too little medicine for the first 10 days so it probably was not even doing anything in the beginning. She does not love tubs, usually cries a lot.

The rough patch of our family's health has continued. I thought we were all getting better but now Casey had a runny nose, cough and fever of 101. I've got the cold part of it but no fever. Also Casey threw up again last night while sitting in her high chair. If Julia makes it through this unscathed it will be a miracle.

The More Trying Times

November 30, 2008: My first week alone with the two girls went so smoothly, I just knew that it could not be that easy. Sure, there were some chaotic moments, but that was to be expected. This past week however has been a huge test and I can't be thankful enough that it happened during Thanksgiving vacation so I had James with me to handle it all. On our first day and first hour of vacation we were in the car headed to Greenwich when Casey threw up in the car. It was a big mess and the car reeked. We could not open the windows because it was about 10 degrees and we would have frozen Julia and Casey. So we cleaned her up as best as we could and tried to hold our noses the rest of the way. We thought it was just car sickness but then she threw up again that night, just wen we were about to lay her in bed, so we had to do another big clean up and we had no spare pjs. The next day it turned from throwing up into diarrhea. That lasted all week, including middle of the night blow outs and several showers and/or tubs during the day. James and I both got sick to some extent but not as badly as Casey. We have done everything possible to keep Julia from getting it. Our hands are raw from so much hand washing and purell use. Today is the first day that we all seem to be taking a turn for the better. All the diaper changes, clothing changes, sheet changes, random tubs and showers...I don't think I would have made it thru that week alone. We were at our parents' houses too so we had extra hands to help out.

Thanksgiving

Some Pix From Thanksgiving at the Duvals...
She ate enough saltines to make "goalie" gear out of them

Whole Family
Back Row: Lou, Jon, Geoff, Cameron, Dave
Middle: Donna, Meme, Jenny, Emily
Front: Andrew, Heather, Sally, Casey, Julia, James

Olives!

Meeting Meme

Grandad

Julia's First Two Weeks

November 19, 2008: Julia's first two weeks have been pretty smooth for us. The one thing is that she spits up or throws up her feedings quite a lot. Casey did this too, she would throw up a whole feeding about once a day for a few weeks. I had her checked out and they told me that it was normal. So at first I was not very concerned about Julia's similar habit. But then it seemed to be happening more often than not and I decided to take her in to get checked just to be sure. The doctor looked her over and decided that we should have an ultrasound to see if she had pyloric stenosis. This is when a valve in the stomach is not open and the food hits the closed valve and bounces back up. This is something that runs in families and since my older brother Teddy had it the doctor wanted to check. I took her in the next morning and she slept thru the entire ultrasound. It turns out she does not have this which was a huge relief, I was not looking forward to her having surgery at such a young age (she would have had to go in the next day to get the procedure done to correct the closed valve). So now he thinks she has acid reflux which is common in babies. She is taking pepcid for babies to help and we're hoping it will have a positive effect.
While we were in the doctors office for a visit her umbilical cord stump fell off. Also we had noticed a few days ago that Julia has a big red mark on her left leg on the outside of her knee.

I didn't really notice when it appeared. That sounds awful, but to be honest, when it is your second baby you don't have the time to look her over all the time like you might with the first. Her sponge baths are always a confusing, rushed event and diaper changes are the same way. Plus, with the winter weather she is not laying around in onsies and/or naked like Casey did being born in the Spring. Anyways, she has a birth mark called a hemangioma, and it is the size of a quarter. It will continue to grow in size for the first year or so then get smaller after that.
Julia is a fussy baby. When she is not sleeping or eating she is usually crying. She has brief moments of being happy and content but they are brief. All in all things are still going well and continue to be manageable.

Do they look alike?

Casey



Julia

We see a lot of similarities in these early pictures...

Beginners Luck?

November 14, 2008: Today was the first day I was home alone with both girls for the entire day. My mom left yesterday morning and so I knew we had to cut the cord eventually and see what I can do. I must say that today went as well as it possibly could have. Julia slept well last night, I woke up startled at 7:15, knowing Casey had probably been awake for at least an hour in her crib. I went up and she was just hanging out in there like she always does, such an easy kid. I held Julia while Casey and I had breakfast. Then we got everyone out of pj's, clean diapers and I even got to take a shower. Julia sat in her bouncy seat in the bathroom and Casey chatted with me thru the shower curtain. We packed up and headed to a 10am playdate at our friend's house. Julia slept in her car seat the entire time and Casey had a blast with her buddies. We went home at noon for lunch with James. Casey had a good 2+ hour nap. I gave Julia a bath and then she and I took a nap too. We all played this afternoon at home. James got home from work around 6 and we all had dinner. Then Casey had her tub and went to sleep and here we are. Survivors of Day 1 of our new life and no worse for the wear. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Question of The Day

How has Casey handled the change?????

Casey has been great so far. She was a little out of sorts when we were gone for three days in the hospital. She came to visit us there twice and did not seem to know what was going on or take much interest in Julia. When we sent her home with my parents the night before I was induced I cried. Hormones are raging, plus there was an element of sadness for me about our family unit of three coming to an end. I also cried a few times in the hospital when my mom would report that Casey seemed a little off, I just felt badly for her and knew she would be confused. But since we have been home things have been pretty good. She is a bit more whiney, acts up a little bit more often from time to time, and is waking up very early in the morning (5:30am).
She interacts very lovingly with Julia, and says 'Baybee Juuuleeeah" in the cutest way. She likes getting her face very close to Julia's and looking at her and gives her hugs and kisses. James and I have tried to spend as much quality one on one time with Casey as possible and keep her life and routine as uninterrupted as we can. I think she is dealing with the big change as well as can be hoped for and expected.