I like to oat, oat, oat.. Opples and Bononos!

Since I could remember, Jayde's favorite song has been "Apples and Bananas." (I like to oat, oat, oat.. opples and bononos.) Who would have known that Jayde actually did in fact like, or should I say love, eating bananas! For the past month Jayde has been eating and enjoying oatmeal and rice cereal almost every morning. Today, as I was eating my own breakfast, I was starring at the extra ripe bananas that were on the table thinking to myself, "I should have eaten those while they were still good." (I don't like bananas once they ripen to a certain point.) Then I looked over at Jayde who was playing on the floor and had the perfect idea that would make her happy while not wasting the bananas. Jayde had her very first fruit puree this morning- bananas and expressed breast milk! It was actually really simple to make since bananas are one of the few things that don't need to be blended or steamed. I just mashed it up with a spoon until their wasn't anymore chunks, stirred in some breast milk, and then gave it to Jayde to enjoy. Usually Jayde is a little skeptical of what I'm feeding her at first, she will get a little cereal in her mouth and taste it for a moment before she decides to continue letting me feed her. Today was very different. As soon as the spoonful of banana went into her mouth, her eyes widened with excitement and she reached out at her spoon for more. She ate almost the whole serving that I had prepared for her, which was about half of a large banana. Now that I have introduced something new and exciting to her, I don't think she will ever go back to cereal. Let be honest, who would? So, for the next 4 days I will be feeding her banana to make sure she is not allergic to it, and then move on to other fruits and vegetables. I am so excited, and I'm sure Jayde is just as excited too!


             Jayde trying to get somewhere, but she hasn't quite figured out how:

Jayde has forever hated tummy time since the day she was born. I would put her down on her stomach and within a minute she would be screaming. However, the last past week she has loved tummy time. I started using the Boppy that I had used previously while breastfeeding to prop her up. Not only does this let her look around the room better, but it is suppose to help strengthen her arms so she will eventually be able to push up on them on her own to crawl. It also keeps her from rolling over right away. I know her rolling is suppose to be a good thing, but how is she suppose to get any tummy time in if she is constantly rolling back over onto her back? So, I use the Boppy for at least 10 minutes. I will then take it away and let her spend some time rolling and playing on the floor. I can see some improvement in her arm strength, but not too much. I know these types of things just don't happen over night and it may take weeks or even months to notice a big difference. But what I have noticed is that she is tucking her knees under her body and trying to push off from them while she is on her stomach. If she could get more arm strength and some coordination, I know she will be crawling in no time.

New favorite activity- eating her toes!

On Wednesday was the meeting with the agent, Shannon, from the modeling agency. She absolutely loved Jayde! When we got there she went over everything; the go-sees, the shoots, the pay, etc. She then gave us a contact to take home to look over, which made us think that they were already planning to sign Jayde before we even got there. Before leaving, she also told us that Le Top had requested Jayde to attend their Go-See on July 8th. I guess that Shannon had shown them the pictures that I had previously submitted of Jayde and then they wanted her to come! This doesn't mean that she is going to be shooting. This just means that Jayde, along with other babies, will be observed by the company so they can choose who would best work for them. Although I am just doing all this for fun, how awesome would it be to see her in an advertisement? I just need to sign all the papers and get Jayde her entertainers work permit before hand. Jayde is officially going to be a baby model for JE Model in SF, so look out world! I know you must be thinking, "don't do it, it's a scam." I think that is the first reaction I got from everyone. I do know that there are a lot of scams out there, but this is not one of them. It's not like I found the agency by some random person coming up to me on the streets telling me that my daughter was beautiful. I found and researched this agency before submitting and agreeing to anything. Also, they aren't having me spend any of my money. The only money they get is the commission from the shoots that Jayde will appear in. So thank you for your concern, but I promise you that this agency is legit.

After Jayde was born I applied for her to get Medi-Cal. The whole process was finally completed just before she turned 5 months, ridiculous right? Of course I still took her to her regular check ups and she still got her shots, but they were just through the county hospital while I waited for her insurance to go through. Finally, her medical insurance was all set up and was set to be activated on June 1st. After seeing this, I called Kaiser to set up an appointment with her pediatrician for her 4 month check up and the operator told me that Jayde didn't have coverage through Kaiser. After hearing this, I called Medi-Cal and got everything straightened up after they verified that I was covered under Kaiser as well. ( I guess you can only submit your child for Kaiser if your currently a member with them too.)Every thing was perfect. I took Jayde to her 4 month check up to get her shots, and then a week later I got a letter in the mail stating that her coverage with Kaiser had been terminated. When I saw this letter I was so irritated because this whole medical coverage thing has been so stressful. Why do they keep messing up Jayde's medical insurance? And why did it take them a whole 5 months to set up her insurance and then only a few days to terminate it? So, I called Kaiser's member service and they told me that I had to call Medi-cal because they were the ones who terminated it. So I called them and they told me that Jayde's membership with Kaiser was never set up.I was a little irritated because I was positive that I had already set it up previously. I gave them all my information, they confirmed I was a member with Kaiser, and then told me that they processed everything and that she now had coverage with Kaiser too. So, hopefully it stays that way. Otherwise I might just flip out!

Just when I thought that all the problems with Jayde's medical insurance was solved, it gets worse. In the beginning of March, Keith and I brought Jayde to the emergency room. ( It was something we thought we should worry about, but ended up being nothing.) At this time, Jayde didn't have Kaiser but we knew she would eventually and also knew that Medi-Cal would cover it once it eventually went through. They sent me one bill for $900 and another bill for $500, which in total is $1,400. (Holy shit, right?!) So I called Kaiser's financial service and told them what was going on and how she was about to get Medi-Cal and that they were going to be covering it. They then looked at their computer and said that the payments were actually all taken care of, so I thought that maybe they had already gotten into contact with Medi-Cal. They then told me that if I receive any further bills to just ignore them. So, I get more bills and like I was told I ignored them. I kept getting the bills so I thought that I should call just to make sure that it was taken care of, because it's better to be safe than sorry. I call Kaisers financial services again, and the woman I spoke to said that nothing was ever covered and that she didn't know why the last person would have told me that. I gave her my Medi-Cal number, and she said that she was going to send the bill over for them to take care of.  Today, I get this bill in the mail for $520 instead of $500. At the bottom of the bill it says that my account is past due. If I have to pay anything, let alone the extra $20 for being past due, I am going to be pissed. How is Kaiser going to tell me that everything is taken care of and then charge me extra for them making me think that everything is settled? Keep your fingers crossed that Medi-Cal takes care of everything and that I won't have to deal with any of this anymore!

mug shots, snapshots, Jager shots

       Getting your baby's hand prints and foot prints is a lot easier said than done. I had the perfect idea for what I wanted to get Keith and my father for fathers day. I wanted to go to Color Me Mine and decorate a mug with Jayde's hand prints and foot prints. I had this perfect picture in my head of what the experience would be like, Jayde sitting perfectly still while I panted the paint on her hands and feet and then getting a perfect print onto the mug. The experience was nothing like I imagined. After I was done painting Keith's mug an all-over turquoise color and my father's mug a green color, I decided I was going to make Jayde's prints a dark purple color. I started off trying to get a foot print but she was screaming at the top of her lungs. I then went outside in the car to feed her and after she got her belly full she was happy again. I then went back in and attempted to do a hand print, which wasn't going to happen. Every time I painted her hand she would close it and get the paint all over the place. After two tries, I gave up getting her hand print onto the mugs all together because I knew it wasn't going to happen. Her feet weren't easy either, painting them was almost as difficult as her hands. I knew I had to at least get her feet because I didn't just paint my father and Keith mugs for no reason. So, my mother held Jayde while I held down her leg and foot while an employee helped paint her feet to get them onto the mugs. The foot prints looked nothing like I expected them to look like and I kept having to re-do them until I was satisfied. Eventually both my mother and I were stressed while Jayde sat their screaming. We just wanted to get everything done with so we finished up with the foot prints, wrote "#1 Dad" and "#1 Grandpa" on them, and called it a day. I picked them up a week later after they were fired and glazed and when I saw them I was very happy with the way they turned out. They where exactly what I wanted and I was so excited to give Keith and my father their fathers day present. They both loved it, and now they will always have a mug with Jayde's little foot prints on them from when she was a baby.

Keith's Fathers Day present-- There are foot prints around the whole mug

       While I think that I have the most beautiful baby that has ever lived, I also know that all parents think the same thing about their baby. Every time I take Jayde in public people always say the same things, "That is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen, she is going to be a heart breaker!", "Look at those beautiful eyes, your baby should be a model!". A couple months ago I submitted Jayde to be in a contest to be on the cover of Parent's Magazine. She was one of the finalists, however she didn't win. I wasn't heart broken or anything, I entered her in the contest just for fun. After that, I hadn't really thought of Jayde being a model until just a few weeks ago. One of Keith's friend's son is a model/actor and she recommended her agent to us if we were considering ever finding an agent for Jayde. I then e-mailed her and she asked us to submit Jayde's photos to her along with some other basic information. (Jayde's height, weight, age, etc.) So on Saturday I sent her a few of my favorite pictures not expecting to hear anything back anytime soon. Yesterday she called me and wanted to set up an appointment to meet Jayde. Tomorrow Keith and I are taking Jayde into the agency and although I'm hopeful, I'm not getting my hopes too high. Her being a little baby model would be cool, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if nothing happened. I'm doing all of this just for fun.

This was the picture that was submitted to the Parent's Magazine cover contest

       On Saturday was my first night ever away from Jayde. I went to San Francisco to visit some friends that I went to SFSU with. After deciding that I was going to go, I was so excited! I haven't been able to be with anybody for the last 5 months without having Jayde with me. Not only that, but this was going to be my first night drinking in over a year. That night while I was getting ready I was so nervous, I was literally shaking while doing my hair. Right before I was about to leave, I started to get cold feet asking Keith whether or not he thought it was a good idea if I went. If it wasn't for him reassuring me that everything would be OK at home, I probably wouldn't have been able to go. I left about 6 oz. of expressed breast milk along with some Nutramigen formula just in case the breast milk wasn't enough (Jayde can't drink regular formula. The one time she did have it she had an allergic reaction! Her pediatrician thinks she might be allergic to cows milk). After about an hour of pacing the house, I finally left. I had such an amazing night. It was no nice to be able to relax and hang out with my friends without having to worry about keeping track of a baby. However, at the end of the night I kept wishing I could go home but because I drank I wasn't able to. I missed both Jayde and Keith and kept looking at the clock wishing it would be morning. I can say that I probably won't be drinking for a while. Keeping track of drinks to determine when all the alcohol will be out of your blood is stressful and takes away from the experience. By the end of the night I was so stressed about when I would be able to feed my daughter again and if my breast milk was tainted that I asked Keith to run to Target in the morning to get a test to determin if there was still alcohol still in my system. Thank god when I got home and tested my milk it was clear, because Jayde was hungry and had just finished all her breast milk! Also, she hated her formula and wouldn't drink it! So I took Jayde into bed with me and we snuggled while I feeding her until we both fell asleep and took a nap.

Everyone Poops

Watching Jayde grow can sometimes be overwhelming and emotional at times. This last week has brought so many changes. I’ve gone from feeding Jayde on my breast everyday to watching her eat cereal from a spoon in her highchair. I have gone to sleeping with her snuggled next to me every night to her sleeping in a separate room in her own bed. I have been able to watch her turn her big smiles into the sweet sound of laughter. Although these things make me happy, sometimes I feel as if Jayde is growing too fast. I found myself laying in bed crying the other night; thinking about all of the things Jayde has accomplished, I am so proud! I love watching Jayde grow and reach all of these wonderful milestones and I can’t wait for her to advance and do other things too. But, sometimes I wish that I could just stop time for a little bit so I can enjoy her how she is now for a little bit longer. I know that before I will be able to realize it, she will be running around, able to do everything by herself and these days of her relying on me to do absolutely everything for her will be in the past. I never thought I would be saying this, but when her days of independence come I know I will miss her depending on me like she does now. The advice I have for all new and expecting mothers out there is to enjoy them while you can. When those days of constant crying and need start coming to an end, you will wish you can go back a few months and start all over. I know that it sounds ridiculous, but you will know exactly what I’m talking about when your baby gets to be around 5 months, too.

Jayde has officially started eating rice cereal! I will tell you that it wasn’t a simple thing like I thought it would be. I didn’t think that the cereal would be much different from what she usually eats since I was mixing in my breast milk so the flavor would be familiar. Also, I was making it very thin. I was mixing one tablespoon of rice cereal with 4-5 table spoons of breast milk, which in my opinion is really only milk. In Jayde’s opinion, she was very confused and disgusted by what was going into her mouth. I don’t know whether it was the taste or the texture, but she would make a disgusted face and then immediately spit the cereal out of her mouth. If I tried to feed her more, she would close her mouth as tightly as possible and keep turning her head away from the spoon. Eventually, after me trying to get her to eat it she would just get annoyed with me and start crying. The first time Keith tried to feed her was hilarious! After failed attempts to feed her, he pretended to eat the cereal and enjoy it to try and trick her. After pretending that the cereal was delicious and then trying to feed Jayde a bite, she would look at Keith as if she was saying, “No thank you, you can go ahead and eat that stuff if you like it so much.” Keith and I were laughing so hard! Finally after about 5 days of me wasting valuable breast milk on something that wasn’t going to be eaten, she gave in. Now she has been eating rice cereal three days in a row without a problem. I found that the only way she was going to eat her cereal was for me to let her chew and suck on her spoon before feeding her. I don’t know why her chewing on the spoon makes such a big difference, but it works. Jayde went from rejecting the cereal to eating a whole bowl everyday!

 The facial expression I got at the first attempts to feed her cereal- DISGUTED

Happily eating her cereal after finally getting used to the new taste and texture

The doctor said that I should wait to start feeding her purees until she is about 6 months. However, today I took a "Introducing Solids" class at the Day One Center and the baby nutritionist there said that if the doctor said she could start eating cereal, there should be no reason for her not to be able to eat purees. So, I think that for the first time in history that I am going to veer away from "the book says" and "the doctor says" and try some real foods. I am so excited! I plan to make all of Jayde's food by scratch so she gets to experience the freshest and healthiest diet available. This coming week, I plan to go and by the Baby Brezza baby food processor so I can start the whole food making process. On a side note, for all those parents about to start their baby on solids, I highly recommend taking the class that I took at Day One. It is very informational and makes you feel a lot more confident on starting your baby on purees, especially if you plan on making their food by scratch.


A video of Jayde eating and enjoying her rice cereal for the very first time after many failed attempts:

When the doctor tells you that starting solids will change a baby’s poop, they aren’t lying. Today I was concerned because Jayde hadn’t had a bowel movement in two days. Because I am a “paranoid mother”, I called the advise nurse just to be 100% sure that it wasn’t anything serious. Of course immediately after, Jayde decided to take the biggest poop of her life. Happy that I knew for sure now she wasn’t constipated, I took her to her changing table to change her diaper. After taking off her pants and seeing what was inside her diaper, I stood there in surprise for probably about 2 minutes just staring at her poop. After months of having watery stools, suddenly I had a diaper filled with poop that had some consistency. The only thing that I can think of to compare it to right now is thick gravy. (Sorry if I just ruined all your Thanksgiving dinners for the rest of your life after that comparison.) Basically what I’m trying to say is that it wasn’t hard with a shape, but it wasn’t the watery poop that I have come accustomed to over the months. It also had a noticeable scent to it. I’m not saying that my daughter’s poop smelt like roses before she started solids. What I am saying is that the scent of it is a lot stronger than what it had been before. One last note is that there was a lot more of it, I’m not lying when I say her entire diaper was filled. I don’t know if this was caused by the missed days of pooping or her cereal, but I literally went through about 10 wipes instead of the usual 2-3.
　　
Lastly, I decided to get Jayde’s ears pierced! After giving it way too much thought than necessary and stressing out about it for no reason, I finally decided to just do it. I knew that I was eventually going to get it done sooner or later, so I might as well just choose for it to happen sooner and get it over with. I got them pierced at Zebras in Walnut Creek. After picking out the earrings and paying I found out that there was a 30-45 minute wait. Jayde fell asleep on Keith for most of the wait and I just sat there with anxiety constantly asking Keith, “are you sure we should do this? Do you think she is going to be OK?” After what seemed like forever, our buzzer went off and it was Jayde’s turn! It actually ended up being perfect timing because Jayde had just woke up and was in a relaxed mood. I let Keith hold her while I tried to distract her by talking to her and making her look at her toy. The first ear wasn’t too bad. She did cry for a quick second but then got over it quickly. The second one, however, was horrible. Keith had to hold her down tightly so she wouldn’t move. At that point I think she was more scared by the fact that there was someone not allowing her to move. As the needle went through her ear she jumped and then started crying, it was so sad! I took her from Keith, gave her a hug and kiss, and then she was over it. After that point she has never shown any discomfort by them, I honestly don’t even think she realizes that she has earrings in her ears. The only difficult part is cleaning them twice a day, she just will not stay still!

Jayde's very first picture with her ears pierced!

FOURTH Times a Charm!

In my last post I promised that the next time sleep training Jayde would be a success. I am proud to say that I have kept my promise! Was it hard? ABSOLUTELY. There were many times when I sat on the couch in tears debating whether or not I should go pick her up, but I stood strong. Hearing your child cry is the worst thing ever and makes you feel like a bad parent. But, I have learned that if you always break down and give your child everything they want that they will never learn anything.  Within the last 5 nights I have been able to accomplish all the goals that I had for Jayde's night time sleeping. She is now able to: sleep in her crib, fall asleep by herself, sleep through the night, and put herself back to sleep when waking up in the middle of the night.

This is how everything went down:

Night One (5/29/11):
I put Jayde in her crib at about 9:40pm. This is a lot later than her normal bed time. I read that the first couple nights you should put your child to sleep about 30-60 minutes later than usual to ensure that they are tired, I guess it is suppose to help them fall asleep faster. The first night is suppose to be the worse and I was expecting to listen to her cry for hours. She surprised me by falling asleep in a little less than an hour at about 10:25pm. She didn't sleep for that long before waking up again. She woke up at 12:55am and wanted to eat. Keith fed her a 4 Oz. bottle of breast milk and then put her back into her crib. She fell asleep without crying, which was very surprising to me. She then woke up again at about 4:45am and wanted to feed again. Keith gave her another 4 Oz. bottle and then she fell asleep again with no problem. She woke up in the morning at 8:10am

Night Two (5/30/11):
This night was by far the worst night. I think it was the worst because Jayde knew that we were going to be putting her into her crib and that we weren't going to be picking her up again. I put her to sleep around 8:30pm and she screamed for about 2 hours. Finally, we decided to try and feed her again to see if that would help put her to sleep. Keith went into her room and fed her a 4 Oz. bottle of breast milk and she went to sleep right after with no problem at about 11:00pm. She then woke up again at about 3:00am for a feeding and went back to sleep. She woke up that morning at about 7:00am.

Night Three (5/31/11):
I put to Jayde to bed at 8:30pm. She whined for about 30 minutes and then fell asleep. She then woke up at 2:00 am for a feeding. She then slept through the rest of the night. She woke up at about 6:30am.

Night Four (6/1/11):
This was the night Jayde finally got the hang of what she was suppose to be doing. I put her down in her crib at about 8:30pm, she whined for no more than 2 minutes, and then she fell asleep. This night, she slept through the entire night for the first time. It was amazing and scary all at the same time. I woke up at about 4:00am in panic and went into her room to check on her to make sure she was OK, which she was. I then went back to bed and slept until she woke up at about 7:00am. Getting a full nights worth of rest for the first time in 4 months felt amazing.

Night Five (6/2/11):
Jayde fell asleep perfectly last night. I put her to bed at 8:30pm and she was asleep within a few minutes without making a sound. She didn't sleep completely through the night like she did the previous night. I heard her wake up at about 1:00am and she did fall back asleep within a few minutes without me having to check on her, which is good. She then fully woke up at about 5:00am for a feeding and went back to sleep until 8:10am this morning.

Jayde sleeping all by herself in her crib!

As you can see, with each night Jayde fell asleep a lot easier. I can now put her to bed in her crib and she will fall asleep no problem. Her night time feedings have significantly decreased. Before the sleep training, Jayde was waking up every 2-3 hours for a feeding. I decided previously that if Jayde where to wake up in the night wanting to feed after we started training, she was only to get a bottle instead of me feeding her on my breasts. I felt that maybe if she didn't get the comfort of me being their while she fed at night that she would eventually decide that waking up wasn't worth it. I think that feeding her only bottles has helped her night time waking a lot. I am now confident that Jayde will only need to be fed once a night, if any. I am also confident that Jayde will be consistently sleeping through the night more often.

Naps are still an issue. The sleep training I have Jayde on says to put her in her crib at her nap times and if she is still awake after 30 minutes to take her out. Supposedly, she will eventually take naps in her cribs once her sleep schedule is completely established and she knows that her crib is a place for her to sleep at all times. For now, I am happy that Jayde can put herself to sleep and stay asleep at night.
Today was Jayde's 4 month appointment. She had her shots and they weren't too bad. Although, I do think she is a bit grumpy now. But I don't blame her, I would be grumpy too after having 3 shots in my leg. Good news, her pediatrician gave us the OK to start feeding her rice cereal. I am so excited! I can't wait to see her confused face when I give Jayde her first bite. I plan on feeding her rice cereal tomorrow morning! I also talked to the doctor about whether or not getting Jayde's ear pierced would be a good idea. She said that if I were to get them pierced, now would be a good time. Now that I know getting her ears pierced wouldn't be an issue, I'm considering getting it done. I'm just nervous because I don't want to hear her scream. When I was younger I had the worst ear piercing experience that I will NEVER forget it. So maybe getting them pierced now might be good so she won't have to be traumatized later. Whether I will get it done or not, I'm still not 100% sure. But I do know that if I choose to get her ears pierced that I'm going to do research. I want the person piercing her ears to be extremely sterile and experienced in piercing baby ears.