late update!

ok we had kinsley's 4 month appt. on tuesday and i am finally getting around to posting. she is now 13 lbs 10 oz. and 25.75 in!! still in the same percentiles. she also got some shots which later caused a slight fever and a very cranky and tired baby!

we discussed the reflux with the doctor and he gave us the prescription for prevacid and also told us to call if we don't see a difference to get zantac. so the first two days of the meds she was also fighting the reaction to the shots so we couldn't really see a difference. so today is the 4th day and 2nd day since she has been feeling better and i would say we had a good day today! she is burping without massive spit up ad i have not heard a scream all day. she is also right now sleeping for her 3rd nap of the day!!! that is crazy. she took a 45 min nap then a 1hr 15 min nap and now she is down again! that is super exciting for me! she is waking up happy too!!!!!!!! so i think the meds have made a difference but we will see what the next couple days bring too.

we also got her exercise jumper out and she thinks it is cool. she will bounce for a bit and play with the toys!!! i am so excited that she can use it now. not sure why but i love that she can play with that!!! it is a big step in my head.

i will post some pics when i get a chance.

kinsley is 4 months!

well kinsley is now 4 months old!!!! that is crazy. we went to sears today for pics because our normal place kiddie kandids is now closed, so that is sad. i was happy with the pictures but not the organization of scheduling. so i think next month we will be trying a photographer that took pics at kiddie kandids and does her own on the side. the money will probably equal out to be the same and with her i will get the pics for easier sharing with the family and i can actually spend less that way so that would be good for the bank account!!! anyways here are some pics we took today on her 4 month day!!!

here is a face we see alot of around here!


watching football with mommy and daddy, she loves tv
opps...did i change the channel!!!

hmmm...what happens if i push these buttons! it is so cool how she wants to touch everything now and hold things. she actually knows what is going on around her and she loves it too. she is a people and thing watcher for sure.

did you say 4 months...wow am i a big girl yet?

no...still my little baby!!

so kinsley at four months...

we are still figuring out the gas, and acid reflux, but hopefully in a few days we will have that all figured out for good. you are sitting up so great in the bumbo when you decide to, other times you refuse to bend and become as stiff as a board! you smile alot and love to talk...you take after mommy there!!! you haven't rolled over yet, you are trying but can't figure it out, plus floor time usually makes you cry more, you need to be more upright due to the reflux. we have revisited raising the mattress to help with the reflux and hopefully getting you some sleep. that has seemed to help a little, we also made a nest so you stay in the right position with your head raised. naps are pretty much non existent, you still don't sleep through the night but you are trying hard to! you are a people watcher and still love the car. you love to hold your toy "buddy" and suck on burp cloths i think you will be a blanket kid.

overall you are a good baby. you don't mean to scream all the time! i am still in awe of how much i love you. can't wait to see how big you are at the doctors on tuesday.

what a cutie!!!!!!!!!!!!!

random pics, diet, etc.

i was a bit of a slacker with pics this month so here are a couple cute ones.

this is our little glow worm! we still swaddle kinsley for sleeping, we tried to not swaddle her one day for naps and it was horrible. not that she naps well anyways but she wouldn't sleep at all without being held if not swaddled. so for now we will keep swaddling her.



kinsley has been doing this alot lately when we put her on her back. it is like she is just chillin out!



here is our baby sitter!!! callie always keeps a close eye on kinsley. she has been a good dog so far but i still worry about when kinsley starts to move. check out kinsley in the bumbo too!! she doesn't always like it but she does very well when she will sit in it.


ok update on the diet...it's OVER!!! ya that didn't last long! TMI i got constipated and that was no fun, i went to the doc to make sure i was ok, and that kinsley wouldn't end up constipated and they said she would be fine but mine would probably get worse and i would need a laxative or suppository...ya i have my limits, nothing is going up my butt!! so i stopped that and we will discuss meds with the doc on tues. from talking with alot of other moms and reading things on the web i am pretty sure i want prevacid the other choices seem to not work well for the majority of people. i would rather get the best one first rather then messin around with something that may not work.

silent reflux

i found another website about silent reflux and this mom's story is very similar to mine with kinsley. they way she said she was feeling is dead on, although i have not thought about dropping kinsley off at the hospital and leaving as she felt like doing with her son, i do feel like i am doing everything wrong and a day of screaming really wears me out, emotionally, mentally and physically. i do take my breaks and leave her screaming places to clear my head, but really that makes me feel worse sometimes. it is one thing if she is screaming because she is tried or something else but not when i now she is hurting on top of being exhausted and she just can't figure it out for herself yet. below is the link to the story if you feel like reading it.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/88167/the_symptoms_of_silent_reflux.html?cat=25

she mentions a few symptoms her son had that were not on the other site such as seeming to eat all the time or eating like crazy, poor sleep, gagging with own fist, and chocking. kinsley has done all of these. although her feeding has gotten better she does eat alot and when she eats she eats forever. also she gags herself with her fingers all the time now that she can get them in her mouth i thought that was just a baby thing but maybe not! and well her sleep just all out sucks, it doesn't happen at all!!! i think she is supposed to get 15 ours at this age and we are lucky if she gets 10, and that is with naps lasting all of 45 min. on a god day!! as for chocking kinsley has done that since day 1 and all the time, she turns beat red, gets teary eyed and coughs it out. that is her normal. oh it also mentioned burping alot...i always put that under the gassy category so i may have been wrong on that one, although she is a gassy girl too!!!!

as for my doctor, i am sure he will be on board. he has mentioned silent reflux, but by 3 months alot of babies figure things out and i was not mentioning all these symptoms because i thought they were unrelated. so we were taking the wait and see approach but i am tired of waiting!

i am continuing on with my diet but i just really feel like we will end up on meds. i feel so bad for her and just want to end her pain soon. today was a very rough day and it just kills me to know that she is hurting and has been for about 4 months now. i hate to think that her normal is pain.

hopefully by this time next week we will have this all figured out, the diet is for 2 weeks but if i see no change by the doctor's appt i will probably go the med route, at this point i just want her to be a happy baby, who is pain free.

i am not the best writer so hopefully you could follow all of that, but read the website, it is well written and is pretty close to what my every day is like. i will post others if i find any that help me explain myself.

elimination diet

yes you read that right!

we are now trying an elimination diet, or i should say i am! here is why...kinsley for sure has silent reflux, i am 100% convinced of that, and i think she has had it since we brought her home but i didn't know all the symptoms, i found a site called pollywogbaby.com that listed the symptoms and she had all but 3 of them! so in order to help her, since she is in pain i think all the time i can either do the diet or put her on meds. so after a long sleepless night i decided to start with the diet, get the prescription and see what happens with the diet before getting it filled.

so here is the diet, for 2 weeks i can eat rice, potatoes, turkey (no lunch meat) and pears. yep that is it with nothing added except salt! this will clean out my system and kinsley's. then i will start adding one food in every four days, if no reaction happens the food is fine. i have to start with the least reactive foods first and move to dairy and wheat last along with other allergen foods like nuts, etc. now if at the end of two weeks kinsley is still a screaming banshee then the reflux is more then just food related.

i chose this route one because her appt. is a week away and instead of doing nothing for a week and can be half way done with eliminating food by the appt. and be able to tell the doc we are already trying this is he does suggest a diet change. for two i would rather find out now if it is food related then later when she is eating everything. the meds will mask the symptoms but not fix the problem so as soon as she were to stop the problem they would return if it was a food. now if it is food she could grow out of it, and eliminating the problem food would help her do that without pain. if it is not food the meds could help her be pain free while her body develops the rest of the way.

so i started all this today and feb 2nd will be the first day i can reintroduce food if i have seen a change in her behaviors during the diet.
wish me luck!!!

the kids!!

rece and carmine had their birthday party the other weekend, so beth and her kids came to visit. we were able to get pics of all the kids.

just the babies!!! colbie, kinsley, tierney


all the kids carmine, rece, tierney, averie, kinsley, baylor, and colbie

motherhood!

well motherhood has been quite the journey so far. it has left me feeling the happiest, the saddest, the most frustrated, the most fulfilled, the most needed, the loneliest, and at times the dumbest i have ever felt in my life. count your blessings if you get a happy "easy" baby you folks are too lucky. i love kinsley with all my heart and would never change her, i love her spirit and personality,but it can lead to some crazy days and nights of screaming!!!!! it is a hard thing to explain to people that did not have such challenging children, even my mom thought i was loud and tough till she heard kinsley screaming during a visit, she said "oh...you never did THAT!!!" so you see it is something you only understand if you have lived it. lucky for me not so much her but rece was very similar to kinsley, or kinlsey is very similar to rece and so tonia is able to relate to my stories and feelings of defeat! now all those times i told her it would be ok, it wasn't her fault (and it wasn't), hang in there, and so on are coming back to bite me in the butt!!!!! as i know when i told her but i know so much more now it is much different when you are in it and hard to see change when it is day to day. i know it will all get better and this is such a small part of the whole picture, and of course things could be worse. hopefully some day i will type on here that she took a real nap, slept through the night and had a happy day with minimal screaming...possibly with melatonin but hey i will take it!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) of course we all know as soon as i type that it will never happen again!!!

despite all the hard times,we do have some amazing good times too she is so cute and silly. i love her smile and giggles which are happening more often these days. i love how she looks away when she smiles. i feel like she will be a spitfire at times like me and shy like her dad sometimes too, i can't wait to see her personality really come out. well there she goes screaming so that is all for now!

details on kinsley

here are some details on how kinsley is doing these days.

-she snorts!!! she snorts when she is happy, crying, mad, hungry, laughing, all the time. i love her little snort!! (she has done this from birth and i hope she continues for awhile!)
-great head control
-hates to sit prefers to stand (with help of course!)
-sleeps 7-9 hours most nights, still a few 2-3 oclock feedings but not often
-bed time is still rough (getting her to sleep)
-almost rolled over belly to back
-can roll to side from back
-not a fan of belly time but does well
-spins in circles in her crib at night
-new nickname "glow worm"
-smiles alot, but you really have to work for it
-laughs more often now, belly laughs, high pitched squeal laugh, and funny chuckles!
-turns towards her name
-coos and talks to us all the time
-grabs toys and gets them in her mouth
-loves to chew on anything
-still likes the car, sleeps on just about every ride unless she is really hungry

i think that sums her up at this time. i can't think of anything else. she is such a cool baby! she has the best faces and looks like a completely different kid wen she is all smiles, it is crazy weird how her face changes. overall she is happy, still some gas and reflux issues to work out, but they seem worse at night from about 7 on. hopefully that works out soon.