does not exist in Georgia since Genevieve has come to town. While she did wonderfully on the plane ride down from New York, she has been one unhappy camper since then. When she's not eating or sleeping, she's screaming. Thankfully she is still sleeping through the night, but it may be from exhaustion. Her Grandparents have tried their best to be very helpful, suggesting that maybe she's hungry and needs to eat more. To which I reply, "Have you seen her THIGHS?!?" I knew it had gotten very bad when last night they said I could go back to New York early if I thought that would make her feel better. So, this morning we went and visited the local pediatrician.
At the doctor's office Genevieve smiled at everyone and acted like a perfect angel. She even laughed at the nurse and turned her head to the side so the nurse would have an easier time taking her temperature. I tell the doctor about Genevieve's constant screaming while she blows bubbles at him and coos. It's at this point that I threatened to either leave her there or bring her back every day.
The doctor said that one of her ear drums is sunken, indicating that she had an ear infection that she has fought off on her own and that the infection has finally drained. We decided not to give her antibiotics at this time. Genevieve and I then drove home, stopping by her Great-Grandmother's on the way so she could smile and coo at her. Then I got her home and out of her car seat, at which point she proceeded to scream for 30 minutes and then pass out.
On a different note, I had the following conversation at the doctor's office:
Nurse: Your daughter weighs 18 pounds and 4 ounces. Looks like she is doing very well for a... How old is she? 7 months? 8 months?
So far this weekend has been incredibly eventful for little baby Genevieve. She took her first flight in an airplane. This turned out to be oddly uneventful. She didn't cry at all and many people commented on how good she was. We were prepared and made sure she was drinking a bottle at take off and landing. Unfortunately we didn't think to change her during the flight and while waiting for our luggage her diaper runneth over.
She went to her first restaurant. She slept through most of the meal and then woke up and was pissed during the rest of the meal. We tried this again the next day and she screamed through the entire meal. Carrie and I took turns sitting with her in the lobby.
She went to her first wedding. There, again, she screamed through almost the entire affair. Fortunately her grandfather took her outside so she couldn't ruin it. You could hear her screaming from the lobby until she was taken outside.
She slept through her first thunderstorm. There was lightning flashing and thunder booming but little Genevieve slept through almost the entire storm until one particularly loud clap woke her at 3:45 AM. We gave her half a bottle of milk and she went back to sleep.
Most of the crankiness has to do with the traveling. She hasn't been able to nap for as long as she would like due to the amount of visiting she is required to do. She has been going in and out of cars all day, everyday, to visit one relative or another. She met her Aunt Julie and Uncle Jim for the first time and screamed just about the entire time but when they watched her the next night she slept like a little sweetheart.
A good bit of the crankiness can be attributed to the weather. She was not prepared for the heat; nor, I guess were we. At the wedding she started the party in a pretty frilly pink dress with long sleeves with her white onsey underneath. The 80 degree weather didn't agree with her and she sweated up a storm. We swapped out the pink dress for a thin short sleeved purple one. This was still too much and she ended up spending the rest of the day in her onsey. She was much happier then and even napped a bit.
Not all of her firsts made her cranky. Carrie's father took Genevieve for her first tractor ride. She really enjoyed it and tried to take the wheel a few times. I don't know what it is with kids and steering wheels. They don't look all that inviting but every kid just wants to grab them as if they were painted in bright colors and made of candy.
In order to get the system in working order Carrie didn't just give Genevieve a laxative. She also gave her a bottle of prune juice. Genevieve normally starts her day with a nice warm bottle of milk. Boy was she surprised when she took a sip. Carrie said her eyes kind of bugged out for a second.
Whether it was the prunes or the laxatives isn't clear but it certainly got things moving again. She didn't poop again on Friday but today was a triple-play. Three large smelly poops today. I guess if you back the system up for a week it can't come out all at once. We'll see what she has in store for us tomorrow. I just hope we don't get a repeat of this on our flight down to Georgia. It is bad enough that she is going to be the crying-baby on the airplane. She doesn't have to be stinky crying baby on the plane too. If we have to change one of her diapers on the plane they might have to make an unscheduled stop in order to get some fresh air into the cabin.
I get a lot of requests, sometimes loud and angry ones, for more pictures of Genevieve on the blog. I will do what I can, but she's still not quite in the baby's-always-doing-something-interesting phase. Regardless, here is a picture of our Genevieve happily showing off the goods.
In other news, our good friend Mr. Laxative paid Ms. Genevieve a visit yesterday. She had a remarkably uneventful poop last night and seems a lot happier having 7 days worth of poop out of her system.
It has been quite some time since we've mentioned anything about poop. Additionally, it has been quite some time since Genevieve has pooped. Tomorrow will be seven days without any bowel movements. The doctor told us not to worry about it but that we could give her some prune juice if we had an occasion we wished to accommodate for. We were planning on giving her some before we flew down to Georgia next week but if she hasn't soiled any diapers by tomorrow she'll be getting some juice then too.
On an unrelated note, I noticed something about the passage of time. Our lives are so busy now with the day to day tribulations of taking care of Genevieve that small periods of time seem much longer. It seems so long ago that we were waking up every 3 hours in the middle of the night. It seems like months since she would go through 4 diapers during a single diaper change. I know they say that kids seem to grow up so quickly that the next thing you know they are walking out the door but it seems like just the opposite right now. The past 3 months feel like ages ago. It isn't like every moment seems to crawl but just that so many things happen so quickly that my normal perception of passing time seems off.
Finally, another non-sequitur, pouting. Genevieve seems to have learned to pout on her own. Just before she is about to cry she will often push her lower lip out as far as it can go before she lets off a wail. It is incredible. We never taught her this facial expression yet, there it is. It is really cool to see some of these hardwired human features. I would never have guessed that pouting was one of them.
Genevieve has entered her oral fixation stage. Basically anything she can get a hold of goes into her mouth. Since she doesn't really have articulation of her digits down and can't grasp much she relies upon chance encounters. In this chance encounter she has fallen happenstantialy on her monkey-lope. She was very pleased by this and gigglingly chewed on his belly. By the way, you read correctly. It is a monkey-lope. It has the face of a monkey but the body of some kind of hoofed animal. I think Doctor Moreau must have given us this critter.
One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how often Genevieve needs a cleaning. While we only bathe her twice a week she needs regular spot scrubbings in between. This wouldn't be unexpected if she was crawling or toddling about but our daughter still lacks locomotion. Here is her day in a nutshell:
Wake up demanding food.
Get lifted out of crib and bottle fed in mom or dad's arms.
Lay on belly or back on a nice clean blanket.
Take a nap either in a clean crib or in a clean bouncy chair while wrapped in a clean blanket.
repeat steps 2 through 4 until bed time.
That is it. Where does the dirt come from? It is an absolute mystery. She doesn't touch anything dirty. The only possibility is that since she lays in one spot for so long she is collecting dust. Something that I might investigate further. Perhaps we should try cleaning her with a feather-duster. While we never know the source of the filth we do know where it ends up.
We have to scrub her neck almost daily. My daughter has neck folds that must be a magnet to filth. It is easy to clean under her chins but harder to clean above her shoulder blades. When you try to clean the sides of her neck she will shrug her shoulder and tilt her head so that you can't possibly get the wash cloth in there. You have to use subterfuge and feint for the opposite side. I'm sure she'll eventually figure out my ruse and then I'll have to come up with something new.
Behind her ears there is always a little surprise waiting for us.
The palms of her hands get incredibly filthy. However, this isn't your usual dirty hands. Our "big girl" is big all over. This means that her hands don't just have chubby fingers; she's got chubby palms. What should be a life line and a heart line on her palm are actually deep crevasses.
The same goes for her toes though what is even more incredible about her toes is that her feet are always incased in her outfits as she only wears footed sleepers.
The doctor again commented that she is indeed a big girl, but he said that it is fine and nothing to be concerned about at this point. Some babies just gain about a pound a week for the first 3 to 5 months.
Genevieve's car seat and bouncy chair are only approved for babies up to 20 pounds. Looks like we need to go shopping.
Last night we took Genevieve for a brief visit to a relative's house where they were having a party. Everyone commented on what a cute girl we had and asked how old she was. We, ever the proud parents, said "Three months tomorrow." After hearing these words the most enquirers' jaw's dropped and they would quietly add something along the lines of "She's a big girl."
There was a one-year-old at the party. He weighed 20 pounds and was only a few inches taller. Carrie thinks Genevieve could have taken him in a fight but I think the lack of locomotion really puts her at a disadvantage. She is only about 4 pounds shy of a one year old. She weighed 15 pounds less than a three-year-old at the party but I wasn't concerned about that.
The official weigh-in is tomorrow when Carrie takes her for her 3-month checkup.
Genevieve successfully rolled over from her belly onto her back all by herself yesterday. Here is an action shot. I use the term action shot very loosely because the whole rolling ordeal took about 5 minutes. She spent quite some time on her side waving her arms and legs fruitlessly. It wasn't until she started swinging her head did she complete the roll.
Over the weekend into Monday she didn't nap very much and proceeded to be incredibly cranky. During feedings she would cry every time you gave her the bottle but would stop as soon as you put her on your shoulder. You could pat her back for 10 minutes and not get a single burp out of her and she would cry any time you flipped her over to give her the bottle.
I think this is some kind of baby dominance act and she is just establishing her rank in our family group. Think about it: she pees on us, makes us bring her food, change her soiled clothing, we plan our excursions around her feeding schedule. I'm pretty sure I've even seen her giggle after I've replaced her pacifier for the 30th time because she spit it out. Any naturalist monitoring our family would deem her the Alpha.
Although, the last few nights have been pretty quiet. Perhaps a little too quiet. We haven't really had anything to post. Maybe she feels she has us properly cowed and that her rank has been firmly established.
