Teething Revisited

Corbin does not like teething.

But then again, can you tell me a baby (or adult) who does? I've had my wisdom teeth coming in for a while now, so I can completely relate to her, but it still breaks my heart when she screams and screams and there is nothing I can do about it!

Lately Ryan and I have decided to try to get Corbin to bed at around 9pm. She likes to stay up pretty late (to 11 probably, if we'd let her!), and so we figured it's time to get her into a routine that should be easy to follow.

It is not easy to follow.

Nine rolls around. We put her in the crib, turn off the lights, make sure she is equipped with one of the three pacifiers and her blanket. Much screaming ensues.

I have a hard time listening to the screaming, especially because she sounds like she's dying! And I know I shouldn't go into her room and check on her, but I can't help it! I have no resolve! Last night I tried to keep myself distracted, but nothing worked. Finally, I let her sit with me on the couch while I read my book. I decided at 10pm enough was enough, so I put her back to bed. She screamed for another five minutes, and she finally went to sleep. I was relieved.

My relief was short-lived.

She kept waking up and whimpering every half hour or so, and then right before 1am, she started FREAKING OUT. Nuclear meltdown freak out. Of course, Ryan and I start scrambling. We bring her to our bed. We take her pajamas off (she kept grabbing her feet). We give her something to drink. We give her baby ibuprofen. We rock her. We walk her around. We try to stay very, very calm. And finally, Ryan picked up a book (her Olivia book, actually), and we start going through the pictures. We point, we talk, we don't actually read, but the crying has stopped. And she's rubbing her little red eyes, snuggling with her daddy, and we take a deep breath.

Back to the crib, or let her sleep with us?

We say back to the crib (it's so hard having her in her own room now! I feel so distant!), and after a few whimpers, she's out like a light. Finally.

Today I noticed that she had shoestrings of drool coming out of her mouth, like a dog almost, lol. Sure enough, she has molars coming in! Her canines haven't even poked through yet*, but there's those big teeth! I'm sure they are really causing her grief, but I hope it is over soon! She had a bit more of the ibuprofen today, and she's napping very restfully now.

My poor baby! Not many more teeth to go! Hang in there!

[*I just looked up a teething chart, and apparently the first molars coming in before the canines. Who knew? I thought they all came in into perfect little rows! Learn something everyday! :)]

Pretty, Pretty Princess

I want to preface this post by saying that Corbin has had diarrhea for almost two weeks straight now and our diaper supply is decreasing exponentially. We took her to the doctor on Monday and he said that she has some sort of virus (she was also covered in a full-body rash), and that the rash indicated she was no longer contagious and that it should almost be over.

I have yet to see an end to the poop up the back diarrhea. She is going through quite a few outfits a day, not to mention the sheets needing to be cleaned. I managed to get her diaper rash almost completely healed last week, and now it is back again, looking almost as bad. I'm almost out of diaper rash cream.

She is also teething. She is NOT happy, especially when we are in public. She wants to scream and cry and be extremely loud. I try not to let it stress me out, but I'm so used to my happy and carefree baby, and I just want these teeth to hurry up and come in! It's her top two teeth and you can see that they are about to cut through, so I wish they would just get on with it already! It doesn't help that my wisdom teeth are cutting in as well, with one of them coming in very sideways and making my whole mouth sore. Sigh.

Anywho. Over the weekend, we went down to Macon. Sunday was my niece Allison's second birthday and so we had a little birthday party for her. Corbin has loved hanging out with Allison the last few times we've been down, and this time was no different.

Since it was Allison's birthday, she got to wear a princess crown. Corbin was also given a princess crown, which was the one that Allison wore on her birthday last year. A wand came with the new crown, and Corbin desperately wanted to be in possession of it. It went back and forth a few times, and Corbin shed a few tears, but in the end, she had a good time. :)

Here are some pictures. Enjoy!


My Nanna and the girls. Corbin, Allison, and Haley.


Corbin watching Allison play with the wand. She really wanted it, lol.


Aunt Franki let Corbin have a turn with the wand, which made her very happy.


Until Allison thought it would be quite the laugh to take it away!


As you can see, Corbin didn't take this very well!

Don't worry, the tears didn't last long. She was in possession of the wand after we all had a good laugh. The girls then went outside and basked in the warm afternoon sunshine on Allison's new vehicles. It was a good day, and I had lots of fun.

Can't wait until the next birthday party...Corbin's FIRST BIRTHDAY!! Stayed tuned! :D

First Teeth!

Corbin's first teeth finally cut through today! Exciting!

That doesn't mean she's been missing out on yummy food, though! She is very persistent about trying whatever we're having, even if it's not baby appropriate!

She seems to love cookies. A LOT. Even the not-baby kind.

Like Oreos. :)




And she's super mobile now! She's here, there, and everywhere, and everything goes right in her mouth! She does not discriminate! She takes to following me and Ryan around the house, and she always comes and finds us. Yesterday I was in the bathroom getting ready and she found HERSELF! It seemed like a pleasant surprise, as she spent the next five minutes in there laughing insanely at herself!



Life is so much fun with our little Corbi-lou. And here it is, the day before Christmas Eve! I'm so excited for our first Christmas! I think it's going to be a good one!

Happy Holidays! :D

Teething & Target

Wednesday we had an appointment with our pediatrician to talk about Corbin's teething. Of course I have read up on how you should handle teething and I've asked for lots of advice from other moms I know, but I wanted to hear from our doctor what she personally recommended. I really like her and she has yet to disappoint me, so I was really looking forward to this appointment.

So she came in, checked Corbin, said she was DEFINITELY teething, and checked her ears to make sure there was no infection, as ear infections can be common during the teething process. She told us Baby Tylenol was okay every four hours as needed, Baby Orajel doesn't do any good, and to get some teething crackers for her to gnaw on. Everything was great!

Also, Corbin weighed in at 13lbs even. Such a big girl!


Hanging out with daddy while waiting for Dr. Merritt.


Always in such a good mood!

The next day we went to Target to return some Huggies and exchange them for Pampers, our preferred diaper. We've tried Huggies before, but they give her diaper rash! And don't even get me started on store brand diapers! THAT was a fiasco that involved soaking PJs, soaking baby, soaking sheets on my bed and in the crib, and a very, very angry mommy at 5am.

While getting our Pampers, we looked around the baby section because now that Corbin is holding herself up so well, I wanted to get her more age-appropriate toy. We saw the perfect one, too! They had it up on display so Corbin could "test drive" it. I think she liked what she saw whole-heartedly!






Corbin was so cute bouncing her little legs up and down in that thing! Not to mention she wanted to chew on it. We also loved that it matched all of the other Rainforest-themed stuff that we have! Unfortunately, the price tag was a little disheartening. It costs $90 in store. I'm HOPING to maybe get it for her this weekend, though, one way or the other. I want her to have it so bad!

[Also, please note that Corbin's hair is out of control! It's so unmanageable! It wants to fall straight down her face in a point making her look like Baby Dracula! I try to brush it to the side in a cute little swirl, but that never lasts very long. I guess I'm just going to have to start clipping bows in it everyday so it will look decent!]

We also tried on some dazzling shades, and of course they HAD to be pink!


Yeah, not so sure about these!


Think I'd rather get the cute Hello Kitty ones that I saw at Academy!

And we have a fun weekend to look forward to because we're going to visit Granny and Granddaddy, and hopefully see a bunch of aunts! We have to take Aunt Ashley and Nanna school clothes shopping tomorrow. It's going to be loads of fun! :D

What's the opposite of the tooth fairy?

We all know the tooth fairy...the sweet ethereal creature who comes and takes all your baby teeth away, leaving money under your pillow. What I want to know is who is the hideous monster, the harbinger of pain and suffering, who is responsible for growing teeth?

Yesterday Corbin had one of those screaming crying fits that freaked me out a little bit. She was just screaming. Literally. It was her teeth! I wish so much that they would just cut through already! Most of the time she deals with teething okay, but yesterday...wow.

The worst part of it is that we weren't at home...we were at some friends' house...and I just felt like we were intruding so much! They don't want to hear our screaming baby! Ryan took control and gave her the knuckle. She was biting down hard on it, but still crying. We actually laughed at how ridiculous she was being. I decided to run to Walmart and get some Baby Orajel. By the time I got back, she was quiet, but I put some on her gums anyway.

After that, it was like a totally new baby! She fell asleep in the car on the way home and was out until almost 7am this morning. It was crazy!

And oh my gosh, really...she is growing way too fast! Yesterday I broke out some of her clothes that she got at the baby shower that were 3-6 months size...and they fit her! It was bittersweet because she is growing up so fast...and she gets to wear new clothes! Yay for new clothes! I really have to stop myself from constantly picking up things for her, but it's hard! Everything is just so cute!

Here are some pictures of her and daddy yesterday:



I love the little moo-cow on her shirt!



I love them so much. Seeing them together melts my heart.

Speaking of melting my heart, Corbi-lou is kicking me in the leg and everytime I look at her she gives me the biggest grin! I think I'm going to go read to her for a bit.

Until next time!

Corbin - The First Three Months

Well I suppose I have a lot of catching up to do if I'm going to try and keep a daily blog of my darling Corbi-lou. I just want to start off by saying she is truly the best baby I could have ever hoped for! Not only is she incredibly beautiful, she is almost always happy (except when teething...but more on that later!). The first three months with her have flown by so quickly! I guess that's a good thing. :)

Let's start off with the day she was born. I went into labor on Saturday, April 19th, shortly after noon. I was having horrible cramps, but I really didn't think anything of it, since Corbin wasn't due for another three weeks! Then, at around 4:30pm, my water broke. I was on the phone with my family, as my little sister was getting ready to go to prom and I couldn't be there, and they were all occupied except for Franki. I was like, "OMG, I think my water broke!" And seriously, they did not believe me! Like that huge gushing was just my imagination! Ryan had actually just left to go to the laundromat, too, because we were like, "We should probably pack a hospital bag soon, just in case," and we didn't have any clean clothes! Eventually I made it to the hospital, and when I got there I was already 6cm. It didn't take long for me to reach 10cm, and I got my epidural. Around 9pm I started pushing, but this baby didn't want to come out! I pushed for three hours, and the last hour was pure misery, as my epidural wore off. Now I know what natural childbirth feels like! Corbin was finally born at 12:09 am on April 20th, weighing in at 7lbs, 5oz.



Me and Corbi-lou! She doesn't look too thrilled!



And here she is on her birthday, and my goodness does she have so much dark, dark hair! She was the most beautiful baby in the world. :) Didn't come out looking like an alien at all!

We were in the hospital until Monday afternoon, when we finally got to take our little baby home!



She was so tiny, she could barely fit in her newborn sized Pampers! This was our first day at home, and she was so good and so quiet, and she slept great in her crib! I couldn't be luckier!


Corbin a week old at my baby shower!

My first Mother's Day, also Corbin's due date, came and went. My mama gave me my baby book that she kept for me and it was really special. I hope to someday do the same for Corbin, as I've been working on her baby book since she was born and hope to fill the entire thing in! It's just so fun to look at.


Corbi-lou on Mother's Day.

One awesome thing about Corbin is that she has always slept like a champ. Now, at three months old, she is almost always sleeping through the night, waking up around 5:30 to 6:30 to eat and then promptly going right back to sleep! Here are some pictures of her sleeping:










[That last one was from Father's Day! Isn't she precious?]

On May 20th, Corbin turned one month old, and she had grown a ton!



When Corbin was two months old, she had to get her first set of shots! I was a nervous wreck because I knew she was going to cry and I didn't want to go to the doctor with her alone! BUT, I did what I had to do and to make myself feel better, I put bows in her hair.



Yes, at two months old, her hair was too long for the faux-hawk and long enough for hair bows! And she looked so happy before her shots, too:



And her shots actually went really well! She cried for a minute or so, then took a bottle and some baby Tylenol, and went right to sleep. She slept for most of the day, and when she woke up later, she was a little cranky, but nothing we couldn't handle. She went to sleep like she normally did and the next day she acted as though nothing was wrong!

This past month has been the most fun. She has become very smiley and also very vocal. When I get up with her in the mornings, she's just talking to me like crazy. She's also become so much more alert and aware, and I can see her following me around the room with her eyes and really studying her hands and feet. She also has taken more interest in her mobile that hangs over her crib and gets really excited when I turn it on.

Here are some pictures of Corbin and her beautiful smile:





But with all the good and fun things this month, also comes some of the bad! Because Corbin started teething veeery early, just like I did when I was a baby. Most of the time she is okay, but she has fits of crankiness in which there is no soothing her. Ryan will give her a knuckle and sometimes that helps, but so far teething rings haven't interested her. Hopefully it wont be much longer before those first teeth cut in!

Oh, and did I mention Corbin has style?



I didn't mean to match her outfit to her stroller, but it happened! Pink is totally her favorite color, haha.

I guess that's all for now, but check back on the daily for more about Corbin and hopefully lots of good pictures!