Paranoid Parenting 101

Babies get rashes, I guess.  And our baby got a rash this past week.  It was aaaalllllllllll over her face and scalp and neck and chest.  It was dry and red and angry looking.  I could tell it was bothering her, because she would constantly rub her face with her hands, or against my chest when I would hold her close.  Every mom who saw her in Relief Society on Sunday told me that she was just fine and that all babies her age get that very same rash.  But I wasn't convinced.  Trying to be a proactive and helpful mom, I put some  coconut oil all over her face a few mornings ago to try to give her some relief from the discomfort.  And then the rash got SO much worse! And I started to have a little internal freak out.  What if she was allergic to coconut?  What if Nathan had brought home MRSA or c diff from the hospital and it was now infecting our sweet baby?  What if she had some other kind of mystery infection that somehow looked exactly like a normal baby rash but was actually much much worse?  As the day went on, I got more and more paranoid, and finally I convinced Nathan that we should call the pediatrician.  The nurse at his office said that we should come in and have her checked out.  Our normal doctor was all full that day, but we could sneak in for a minute with another doctor at the same office.  And so an hour later, we were in the office of a different pediatrician with our little girl and her rash, which suddenly didn't seem so serious after all.  The pediatrician, who was wonderful and nice, said that all we were dealing with was a very normal case of baby acne.  Baby acne?? I didn't know wether to feel really really dumb or really really relieved.  The fact that it got much worse after the coconut oil was most likely just a coincidence, because apparently coconut oil is wonderful for baby skin.  The wonderful pediatrician said it was good of us to come in and get her checked out, because it could have been something more serious.  But Clementine would be just fine.

Don't you think that with the technology we have today, paranoid moms could text in a picture of a mystery rash to the pediatrician, and he could tell from the picture if the baby should come in for a visit, or if they were just covered in acne?  I think someone should propose that to them.

I would have sent in this picture:

Poor baby!  Just our luck, the day after the paranoid pediatrician visit, her face started looking so much better.  I hope this isn't foreshadowing what she'll have to deal with in her teenage years.  I was hoping she would inherit her dad's skin genes, not mine! 

In this next paragraph, I am going to write briefly about boobs, it won't be graphic or anything, but if that's weird for you, skip over this part.  My birthday is coming up soon, and Nathan asked me what I wanted for my birthday.  Since I have been wearing nothing but sports bras for the past two months, I thought it might be nice to get a real bra that fit and made me feel a little bet less… Venus Williams-y when I wore it.  We were out running some errands, and since we were at the mall, we popped into Victoria's Secret to check it out.  The sales girl measured me (being a former Vicky's sales girl, I know that it's basically protocol to do so) and when she announced my new size, I was skeptical to say the least.  Two whole sizes bigger than I've ever been??  Are you kidding me?  So I hesitantly grabbed a few huge bras and headed toward the dressing room.  And guess what?  They fit.  My jaw was on the ground.  But I went home with a new cute birthday bra, and I'm more comfortable than I have been in months! Woo Hoo! 

Now if you've made it through my bra story, here are some cute new pictures of Clementine to make up for it.  She's 7 weeks old today.  She weighed 10 pounds and 2 ounces at the baby acne doctors visit.  This little "Thunder," as Nathan calls her, is growing up tooooo fast!  She coos now.  We have entire conversations made up of syllables like ah-goo and ay-ya and ohhhh.  She is so much fun.  

 Another case of paranoid parenting… I worry a lot that she is going to have crossed eyes like her momma did as a baby.  Apparently we won't know if it's a problem until she's about a year old.  Please have good vision, Clementine! 

 I caught Samson giving kisses.  BAD DOG!  He knows better.  

One last thing.  I FINALLY finished all of my thank you notes from my baby showers.  Since I failed to finish (or even start…) thank you notes for my wedding gifts, I really wanted to get on the ball and thank people for their generosity and thoughtfulness in welcoming our sweet girl.  It took a long time, but I have now stamped and addressed the very last envelope.  It feels so good to finish a daunting task, doesn't it?  

Stuff Like Murder Mysteries, Baby Kicks, Dougie Dancing, Etc.

OK, no more lists.  It was a good idea, but I'm not ready to stress about getting a blog written every Monday.  I'm just going to blog when the mood strikes me... and when I have a spare moment.

Here's what's new in the world of Jamilyn and such...

On Halloween, Nathan and I hosted a murder mystery dinner party with our awesome group of summer (now autumn) hangout friends.  I think it turned out well, and we definitely had a lot of fun doing it.  One of my favorite parts of Halloween this year was having actual trick-or-treaters to pass out candy to.  This is the first year in our married lives that we've been able to do that!  Little costume kids are so dang cute.  And we even ran out of candy from our big bowl of Kit Kats and Reeces.  Thank heavens that the Walkers brought Dum Dums too, or we would have had to turn kids away.  After the murder mystery and delicious dinner (dinner in a pumpkin done the RIGHT way!), we headed to the basement and watched Ghostbusters.  And I STILL haven't seen it, because I fell asleep less than half way through.  Maybe someday...

 This is an indicator of my mental state these days.  I made this sign for the party, and didn't realize until I was cleaning up a few days later that I spelled HALLOWEEN completely wrong.  What kind of doctoral candidate am I?  Jeez.

Clementine has some cute new things these days.  She started smiling last week!  It's so darling to pick her up from her bassinet every morning and be rewarded with a happy toothless grin.  She's also started kicking her legs like crazy, especially on her play mat.  It makes her really happy if she can get her feet to connect to her favorite jingly butterfly toy.

This is all that is left of Clementine's long dark hair that she was born with :(  This picture also features her fancy "cephelahematoma"- her major head bruise souvenir  from being born.  Poor thing.  

Nathan is also teaching our baby girl how to Dougie.  He's pretty proud of himself.  :)

.. Under the watchful eye of Jesus.  :)

And we just passed the 2 year anniversary of my Mom's death.  I've been missing her a lot lately, especially in the middle of the night when I'm feeding my little girl, and I have all sorts of time to be still and think about things.  Being a mom has made me think about my own mom a ton, especially raising this girl in the same house where my mom raised me.  She washed me in the same sink and paced with me in the same halls trying to get me to go to sleep. I feel like I understand her love for me more than I ever have before, and it makes me feel closer to her, but also a little bit guilty and selfish and ungrateful for all the things that she did for me my entire life.  She was an awesome mom and I think every day about what I can do to give Clementine the kind of wonderful childhood that I had because of her.  This November 10, I wasn't as sad as I was last year.  But my heart still aches for her listening ear and wise advice and spontaneous fun.  I'm so so so grateful for our little Clementine Gae.  She is my joy and comfort.