Poor Baby and Some Family Outings

***A few hours after I posted this, I THINK Tessa smiled at me. I'm not positive, but her eyebrows were up instead of furrowed like usual and she opened her mouth real wide while looking in my eyes. It seemed like a deliberate smile, but who knows. I'll keep watching for more!***

I think we were spoiled having Kyri as our first baby. Although she cried when others held her, she rarely cried at home. Even when she was hungry, she usually just started wiggling around. Even when she was throwing up her bottles and refusing to eat, she didn't cry. Tessa, on the other hand, is keeping us on our toes (literally...we have to walk around bouncing her quite a bit.) Last week was rough for Tessa...and us. She is demonstrating a lot of the signs of colic and tends to cry for hours at a time. We know it has a lot to do with her reflux problems, and she also was constipated last week, so that didn't help. When she cries her body gets stiff as a board and she arches her back. It makes it really hard to hold her. While the constant crying is frustrating, we feel so bad that we can't comfort our little girl! The books say she should start smiling now, but we don't think it will happen for a long time. She always seems so unhappy and doesn't seem to have anything to smile about. So sad. She also still only weighs 7 and a half pounds. Anyone who knows me and knows how psycho I was about trying to get Kyri to eat, knows that I am freaking out about this. So far I have only been nursing her. We tried to supplement some formula twice last week, but that only increased the screaming! I'm going to try and do formula again this week to see if it goes any better and to see if we can get her to put some weight on.

The doctor has upped her reflux medicine again, and we have seen some improvement. I wouldn't say she's cured, but she has longer periods of contentment. She actually laid under her play gym yesterday (on an inclined pillow) for about 10 minutes without crying. She also allowed us to set her in her swing twice since we upped her medicine. (Before, she always screamed in her swing.) So, maybe it is helping. She still refuses to lay on her back, which is making it difficult at night. She still sleeps on me or in her boppy pillow, but she seems to have longer stretches of sleep at night, which is good!

The biggest improvement we're seeing is that she is willing to sit in her carrier much better now. She still cries occasionally in it, but if she is sleepy enough, she'll actually stay asleep for hours in it. This makes me very happy, since I know we've got some long stretches of time in the car when I go back to work!

Kyri has been very patient with me and seems to be immune to the crying. She sleeps right through it, luckily! Her vocabulary continues to grow, and she continues to crack us up. I think her cute little ways are what is getting us through these frustrating days. Right when I think I'm about to lose it, she comes dancing in and says something hysterical. I feel badly that she is stuck inside and always has to wait around for me to finish a feeding or calm Tessa down, so I try to come up with a fun activity for her to do each day. Although she can be needy sometimes, she is our comic relief right now! I can't wait until Tessa is comfortable so she can be in a good mood, too!

Kyle is off on Spring Break right now, and it's been great having him around to help with the girls. We took advantage of the beautiful weather on Saturday and went to the zoo. Then, yesterday we went down town to the Chicago Children's Museum on Navy Pier. Kyri loved getting out of the house and Tessa slept through both of the trips!

Here is the new ride. They travel in style!

Driving a big fire truck

She was convinced these fish and frogs were real and wouldn't touch them.

Going canoeing. Wearing her life vest like a good girl!

Kyri would have stayed on this slide all day if we let her.

Tessa was all snuggled in her carrier (and not crying!)

Kyle and Kyri were catching rain drops.

Cool shades!

And here are a few more pics of Tessa looking peaceful. I don't have many pictures of her awake, because I usually am trying to keep her calm when she is.

So sweet....