4.22

Ella decided to wake up at 5:30 instead of her normal 6:30 even though she went to bed extra late.

We went to Target. When we are in the back corner of the store I heard her pooping. Then even more. Of course I had to be far away from the changing area.  I rushed getting about half of my list to get to the front of the store. There was no line so I decide to pay and then change her.   She actually fell asleep on the way home. Too bad she woke up when we got home so her nap was about 4 minutes.

She napped after she was home a bit. She woke up crying. I put my food away first before going in to her. Most times she wakes up and cries. But this time was different. Somehow pee got onto her swaddle and fitted sheet. I spent my time changing Ella quickly and comforting her that I didn't investigate, but the diaper was fully on. While picking out her clothes, I showed her something she hadn't worn yet asking if she wanted to wear it and she got so excited and grabbed the outfit on the hanger. She basically hugged it so that's how we picked the outfit. It was a little big. The shorts/bloomers are quite big. They fell down quite often.  I don't know how I can have 2 things similar from Carter's and the same size but one is so much bigger than the other.

We went to another mom meetup in the afternoon. This is a different group than the previous meetups.  This was at a park from 2-5. It was originally scheduled 2-3 but updated.  I decided to go late since I don't know anyone else and it's awkward finding the group. Well I got there at 2:20 and wondered around. I couldn't find anyone. I walked around with Ella. She fell asleep so that was a good excuse. One other mom found me because I mentioned my striped shirt.  Then she went to nurse. I ended up walking with Ella over 40 minutes. It was just us 2 for awhile.  After another 45 minutes there were probably 6 total people. 10 had signed up on the meetup. Ella was the youngest at this meetup and this meetup was for babies born after July 2013. Ella was 4 months, then there were 5 mo, 6.5 mo, 8 mo, 8.5 mo, 9 mo, and I'm not sure the one that showed up last. It was pretty chilly. We were in the shade. All the moms had blankets and coats and stuff. I was in shorts and a t-shirt. I had a cardigan to put on Ella but no coat for me. I knew she was getting to the time she needed to eat so I decided to leave first before fussy time started.  We left around 4:15 or maybe later.

I fed Ella when we got home and then she napped.  After that nap there was a lot of playing. Then a lot of eating. Oh so much eating. At 8 PM she fell asleep. I thought she wanted to sleep at 6:30 but not so much.

May 11-20 Outfits

5/11

I don't have any pictures that include my sandals and the top of my head. I love love love love how Ella and I coordinated.

5/13

I was on the phone with my mom here.

5/14

A friend gave me this top. It's pretty loose around the belly. I really like how the nursing portion is at the top.

5/15

I wore this to the dentist. I discovered I should wear skirts more with nursing friendly tops. I had on a nursing bra but they are trouble. I should have ones that aren't padded and are the thinnest possible fabric or something. The night before I french braided my hair. I had showered about 12 hours earlier and part of my hair was still damp. That's how I got the wave in my hair. It didn't really last though.

5/15

 I think I have to retire this shirt. It's quite stained from deodorant or from sweating.

5/16

 I got blood work and dye injection and never took off my bandages.

5/17

5/19

I went for a walk at Shoreline so I wore the jacket for part of it.  I used my 50mm lens here. I took some on auto and some with manual. I liked manual so much better. I just did the test with some then the other so I could have a direct comparison. With manual some had me entirely blurry though if I was off center since I had picked a dot in the center to be in focus.

5/20

One of these times I'm going to put on makeup before Ella's monthly photos.

4.20

Besides Ella's 4 Month Update photos and Easter, we did some other stuff. We went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch.

Ella smiles a lot when I hold her because Dave gets her to smile. When he held her, she wouldn't smile.

4.19

The day started horribly because the night was horrible. Then at 10 Dave was playing Civilization with coworkers so I couldn't even get a break.

We went to Costco and signed up around 3 PM.  (Note how Dave was taller than the backdrop for pictures. He bent his knees to become a lot shorter when she actually took the picture.) Ella didn't sleep at all.   She slept after we got home for a whopping 20 minutes.

Throughout the day, Ella continued to do this new thing. I would hold her standing on Dave's desk. But then she'd step and stand on Dave's hand over and over. I loved it. Dave not so much. She'd cause him to have mouse clicks and he didn't like that in his gaming.

I got Ella to sleep but then I did some dishes since I had to get the 13x9 washed and out of the sink. Well that woke her up. She slept 30 minutes but about 15 was on me because I didn't get up until I was done replying to some emails on my phone.

It took about a half hour to get her back to sleep. She wanted more food. I was OK with that because when she eats a lot at night she tends to sleep longer. (And it was true this time. She slept a full 8:50.)  I didn't get that much sleep because I ate dinner after she went to bed. We watched TV while I ate but then we finished the episode.  (I didn't get to sleep soundly either. Poly kept waking me up. She'd meow because my afghan wasn't where she wanted it to be. Or she'd walk on my chest and that hurt with all the milk in there.)

Dave thinks he closes drawers. I often find the kitchen like this after he was in there.

I'm glad few days are like this or at least after a month or even week I forget about the bad days. If this wasn't already typed up, I would have forgotten it was bad.

May 1-10 Outfits

6/1 and 6/3

6/5

The pink on 6/3 was a different pink than 6/1 and 6/5. I have the same color nursing tank twice so I get to wear it more often.

5/6

 Ella and I wore our coordinating tops I made. Her tank top is size 12 months. It stretches a lot. At first it seemed like it fit. I wore it since it was chilly enough to wear pants and shorts are impossible to find for a baby Ella's size.

5/7

I wear nursing tanks or nursing camis everyday. I'm in a ton of selfies with Ella but they are the same ones all the time so I don't put them here.

5.16 - Neck

I had plans to run with a friend. She woke up and her knee hurt so she cancelled. But I woke up and my neck was really bad so I was going to cancel.

Dave took vacation from work.  But the specialist fit me in  for my neck so Dave stayed home in the afternoon with Ella and I went to my appointment. It wasn't his idea of a vacation day but it worked out. Dave sent me pictures of Ella throughout my appointment. I really enjoyed that.

I was gone for 3 hours. I saw the specialist. He wanted me to get a CT scan urgently. I went for one then came back and we looked at the films together. Then he did a biopsy.  This was all for a lump in my neck I noticed a few weeks ago but it only started hurting a few days earlier. I actually went to my doctor before the pain started but it took a bit to get something scheduled with the specialist.  During the biopsy it was pus so they will be testing that but it's different than a biopsy. I have a branchial cleft cyst. I was born with it but it just decided to get infected for some reason or other.  They got the pus out. I was so disappointed to not have pictures of this. He started the biopsy using 25 gauge needle.  He stopped after a little since he saw it was pus. He opened the door and shouted to someone for a bigger needle. He got 19 gauge and got a numbing agent to get more pus out. He got a lot out but my neck lump still seems huge.  I got blood work when leaving too. I figured I might as well get it all done if possible. It's so hard to go with Ella and since Dave was home I just wanted it done.

The doctor thought I needed the CT scan urgently because he said it kept pulsating and he was worried it was my carotid artery. He didn't want to biopsy that. It turns out it was just so large and pressing on the carotid artery that's why it was pulsating.  The CT scan showed the mass being 2.3 x 2.4 x 3.3 cm.

It was so weird to have a doctor say something needed done urgently and leave the room to get me squeezed in. He didn't even close the exam room door when he left.  I was sending messages to my mom and Dave during all this. I think they were both more worried than me. I wasn't worried because I always figure everything I go to the doctor for is really nothing and it's all in my head. I guess it's better not to worry.

I have to take anitbiotics and go back in a week.  In the next month or two I have to have surgery to remove the cyst.

I got home at 4. I fed Ella and she went to sleep. I can't even remember what happened next and I'm typing this only 1 day later.

I know I cooked dinner and 30 seconds before it was done Ella woke up and was starving. I knew she was because earlier she only nursed for a couple minutes before she went to sleep. I never get to eat dinner hot. I'm used to it.

I found 2 rugs in the garage on the 15th so we tried to figure out how to place them in the living room. They are easier for Ella to roll on than the hard floor. We also swapped the reading room chair with the chair and a half.

I was ready to go to bed at 8:30 when I got Ella to sleep. That was early for her. But I ended up watching a little of American Idol. Then Dave and I went into bed. He was reading but I talked him into tickling my back so then I stayed up a good hour while he was doing that.  I think I finally went to sleep around 10:30 PM.

I put Ella in some shoes she got from the baby shower. They are size 2 for 6-12 months and her feet barely fit in them.

5.15

Almost every morning Ella gets to hang out with Dave in bed. Many days he's still asleep most of the time or half asleep.

I went to the dentist in the morning. A filling I had previously was sinking so they wanted a 15 min appointment to fix it now versus needing a long appointment and needing to be numb later.  Since the appointment was so short I took Ella. The hygienist last time said to bring here even for long appointments. Well I disagree with that. She didn't like being ignored when the dentist was with me and started to cry. The dentist had to yell for someone up front to come walk Ella. As soon as the other person showed up and said hi to Ella she was happy. She just wanted attention. It was a super quick appointment though.   Ella did cry on the drive home. She didn't like hitting rush hour traffic.

Ella should already be wearing size 2 diapers but we have so many size 1 diapers that I'm trying to finish up. Well she went through 5 outfits because of blowouts. She really does need the size 2 now. OK maybe it was 3 outfits for blowouts and then one onesie had poop on the outside of the shoulder so I had to change that. I'm still not sure how that poop got there. I did give Ella a bath after the last outfit change.

Ella and Poly had to share on the changing table!

Ella played with her piano. She wasn't as interested in just playing this time. She would try to bring her feet up from under it to put them up on the keyboard.

I played Ella's favorite song for her but then she was disappointed Dave wasn't there to sing to her. I sang (yes... me) a few lines of it to her. She loved that.

When Dave got home, Ella was so pleasant we went to dinner. We went to get cheesesteaks. We took the Bumbo. That was great. She likes to sit up and hates having to be in her carrier. I also took a sippy cup with some milk so while we ate so could she. She didn't even seem to want to eat until our food was at the table. She could probably smell it. It was a super successful restaurant trip. Our only better one was a time Ella slept the entire time.