Week Fifteen - Weekend Trips, Hospital Visits and a Fond Farewell

This past week was filled with some big events and milestones and a sad farewell to our dear Chewbacca.

Four Hour Schedule
Karis seemed to be doing just fine on her three hour schedule, but it seemed like she could start going a little longer in between feeds. Since she was fourteen weeks, it seemed like a decent time to try to stretch out her day, especially since her nights have been consistently good. After consulting Babywise and some friends, I decided to try to move her to a four hour schedule gradually. My plan was to add 15 minutes to her wake time and nap time; however, it turns out Karis wanted to make the jump sooner than my plans. The second day of playing around with her schedule, she fell right into a four hour routine on her own with two outstanding naps, good feeds and overall a happy disposition! Yay! It has been such a blessing to get some longer chunks in the day of naps and wake time and I have thoroughly been enjoying this new trend.

Here is our new schedule: (Sorry this is tedious! I know some expecting/new mothers read along, so I wanted to provide you with a detailed schedule.)
7:00 wake up and feed
7:20-8:00 wake time (After I change her diaper, I usually let her hang out in a bouncer while I get ready for the day.)
8:00-11:00 nap (This one is consistently good which is such a blessing. While she naps I get breakfast together, eat and read for about an hour, do dishes, start laundry and maybe do one other chore. It is so nice to start the day off right and productive.)
11:00 feed
11:20-12:30ish wake time (During this time I try to make sure she is getting enough physical, visual and verbal stimulation by doing tummy time, reading to her and then talking to her and pointing out things around the house.)
12:30-2:30ish nap (She is a lot less consistent with this nap, which is fine. I will eat lunch and work on a chore or dinner and go online during this time.)
2:30ish-3:00 wake time (During this time, if the weather is nice, we will take a walk. Sometimes I'll give her a bath or we'll just hangout!)
3:00 feed
3:20-4:00 wake time (During this time, I'll usually let her do independent play while I prep dinner or if she is fussy I'll go for a walk, give her a bath or again, we'll just hangout!)
4:00-5:00 catnap
5:00-8:30 wake time (She is usually up and active during this time and will sit in her papisan while we eat dinner. After, we'll take turns playing with her. Sometimes she'll nap from 7:30-8:30, but generally this is a very poor nap.)
7:00 feed 
8:00-9:00 bedtime (Sometime during this hour, she'll start getting sleepy. Often, when we put her down, she'll actually stay down for the whole night.)
10:30/11:00 dream-feed (She'll be sleeping and I feed her while she sleeps)


Potty Matters and Hospital Visits
So Karis continued to have some digestive issues so on Friday I called the doctor and they wanted to see her in the morning. On Saturday we went to our pediatrician who poked and prodded (after the fact Karis was mean mugging the doctor for the rest of our time there). Although she said everything seemed ok (soft tummy, happy disposition, passing gas) she wanted us to take some further action to make sure there wasn't something she was missing. She wrote us a referral to get an enema at the local children's hospital.

On Friday we showed up at the hospital, unsure of what to expect. The staff was all extremely nice and understanding of a concerned parent. As we checked in, the front desk mentioned that they would have to call back to radiology to see if we were on the schedule. I was shocked! Radiology!? I thought it was just going to be a small office visit. 

Well, as it turns out, they were actually going to be x-raying her intestinal track to see what was going on. Ironically as we waited Karis decided that it would be a good time to prove she was not backed up and she unloaded on me in the waiting room right before they called us into the radiology room! Great. Needless to say we were beyond the point of no return so, we entered the huge room, they had me suit her up in a little baby hospital gown and I got to wear some sparkly lead armor. The procedure was to fill her from the bottom up with a fluid contrast and take an ongoing x-ray video of the fluid in her large intestine. It involved fluid, lots of tape to keep the tube in place and a big waterproof pad. Poor girl! Little One did so well and even the two technicians and the doctor commented on how sweet and mild she was saying "it doesn't get better than that!" So thankful!

The devices of torture.

 

We waited in a separate waiting room to see if she would eliminate the contrast. In a matter of 10 minutes she had the biggest blow out ever actually soaking through a diaper. (I didn't know you could even do that!) We had another set of x-rays and were sent home with some wipes, extra diapers and pads which came in useful since the rest of the day was rather messy! So thankful for modern medicine and for such a sweet and overall healthy baby girl! This week we go in on Wednesday to discuss the results. 

Goodbye Chewie, My Love!
On Friday, we packed up our stuff to head down to Nashville for a one-night getaway and we packed up Chewie's stuff to head to his new home. God graciously provided a wonderful family in Shepherdsville, KY to take him into their home. If Tom Sawyer dog park is Chewie's version of "dog Disneyland", then his new home is like a resort and spa!

The couple a is a bit older with two grown children, one of which is living at home while attending college. They have a ton of experience with dogs in general and even the Spitz breeds in particular. Currently, they have two dogs -- a Landseer and a Shitzu -- and their Landseer is almost exactly the same age and temperament as Chewie.

They live on two acres of fenced in land and let their dogs roam free during the day. At night, the dogs come into the house and have the entire house at their disposal. Their yard is filled with bones (that the husband gets smoked and buys from a local butcher), pig ears and most importantly -- walnut trees (which means squirrels up the wazoo!!)

So, it was with heavy hearts that had our "last days" with Chewie. We had him groomed, let him roam around the house, took him on some final "pack walks", spoiled him with treats and peanut butter and gave him some good ol' fashion loving. And then we dropped him off at his new home and he never even looked back!

Nashville Getaway
Despite all the changes to schedule and medical issues, we had planned to take a one night getaway to Nashville and decided to go through with it. After dropping off Chewbacca we made the drive down to Tennessee for some good ole country fun. As opposed to our normal non-stop sightseeing vacations we were a lot more chill, focusing on food and just walking around and exploring (and enjoying the great weather and free parks!). Even though her schedule was thrown way out of whack, Karis still was wonderful, napping when she got tired (she even fell asleep as we were strolling past all the honky tonks with music blaring!) and even sleeping through the night in her pack and play! 

We had visited this museum before, so we took the cheaper route and strolled around downtown instead.

Karis with the King

Showing off her sitting skills at the Parthenon.

Yay for free parks and kiddie slides!

The weather couldn't have been better.

Hanging out in the hotel room.

It was such a blessing to be able to get away for a short trip, enjoy the car ride, visit a cool city, spend lots of time together as a family and enjoy our happy girl. And as a bonus we had some delicious food (including Nashville hot chicken and the best ice cream I have ever tasted) and Greg even consented to a short trip to the outlet mall. It felt like having ten date nights in a row! We are indeed so blessed!

Karisisms
Nicknames- Karis is such a talker that we have given her a couple new nicknames: Little Miss Yackity Yack and Chatterbox
Kicker- We've noticed in comparison with other babies her age she loves to kick her legs a ton. This both results in socks never staying on, but hopefully means she is developing some muscles that will help her crawl one day!

Bumbo Girl- With her neck strength really coming along, I tried her out in her bumbo seat. She enjoyed it for a bit, then suddenly pushed out her lower lip and let out a cry to let us know she was done being upright. We're still working on that lumbar support!

Until next time!