The Skinny on Flying with Baby

Man, Christmas comes a lot around this joint! After a long hard day that started at 4am...we came home to find not one...but two boxes on my doorstep! The boxes were stuffed with new clothes and toys from Nana and Aunt Janyl -and baked goods from the most Awesome Aunt Marci. The other box contained educational toys! I can firmly say that the kid has more monkey toys then any baby I know. Adding to the collection of monkeys...Aunt Janyl bought her one with purple eyes to match the PJs pictured on the left. (Believe it or not, she was wide awake for this picture...but every time the flash went off, she closed her eyes.)
The monkey. The monkey is brown, really soft and filled with beans...and...a little creepy. The eyes are purple glass and they kinda follow you around. Sorry Aunt Janyl. With that said, she loves it. I pray this isn't a sign to come about her taste in boys.
Last night she also got a singing monkey, shape blocks, and one of her books. We are still waiting on the rest of her book shipment. She has several books coming from her book of the month club.  Then we should be done for a bit.
We did pretty well today. She spit up all over a new yellow and black outfit from Nana, but it's not poo, so I think I can get it cleaned. I fell a little behind this week (again). Hopefully this weekend I will be able to get caught up and organized enough again to make it through another week. I am going to start shopping for a toy box for the girl. It's the one thing I didn't get because I figured she wouldn't need it for a while. Figured wrong. I want something to match the name coat rack that Great Grandpa Witherite made for her. Maybe Grandpa Witherite can make her one to match. He did an awesome job building my dollhouse when I was a little girl. If not, I can always shop for one -I have free shipping at Overstock.com!

The Skinny on Flying with Baby (in ConUS)

According to United Airlines

• One child less than 24 months of age may travel free when accompanied by an adult and not occupying a separate seat.
• Only one child may travel for free per ticketed adult.
• One adult customer traveling with more than one infant must purchase an adjacent seat for each child except the first, at the applicable fare.
• Additional children must be properly secured in their seats.
• A passenger must be at least 18 years old in order to travel with an infant on his or her lap.
• A child who reaches the age of two during travel may travel as a lap child on flights before his or her birthday, but will require a purchased seat on continuing and/or return flights. For portions of the trip requiring a purchased seat, a separate itinerary must be created.
• Within the U.S. or between the U.S. and CanadaAlthough infants are not required to occupy a seat, your reservation must be documented as including an infant.
  Infant occupying a seat
  • Within the U.S. or between the U.S. and Canada, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands
    You may purchase a separate seat for your infant for increased comfort. Infants occupying a separate seat are subject to the full adult fare
  
  
  

Child safety seats
You may use an approved infant car seat on board the aircraft when you purchase a seat for your child. The seat must be an FAA-approved child safety seat device. Please note the following infant car seat placement restrictions: on one-aisle aircraft, car seats must be placed in window seats, on two-aisle aircraft, car seats must be placed in window seats or the middle seat of a center section. Car seats are not permitted in rear-facing seats on any aircraft.

If manufactured after February 1985, the car seat should also be certified for use in aircraft. You should seat your child in the child safety seat for takeoff, landing and during turbulence.

The FAA has approved the use of a child safety restraint system for travel. The system, named “CARES”, uses an additional belt and shoulder harness that goes around the back of the seat and attaches to the lap belt. Children weighing between 22 and 44lbs may use this device. More information is available at www.kidsflysafe.com.

The following child restraint devices may not be used on board the aircraft: booster seats, belly belts which attach to adult seat belts only, and vests or harnesses which hold the infant to the chest of the adult.

My Typical Three Stooges Day!



Never fails, put her in the car seat and she's out cold!

 Such a busy morning! The girl woke up early and didn't leave me a lot of time to heat up a bottle and such, so I 'made' her a bottle from scratch. It was easier -and probably the freshest she's had in a bit! Then she set the tone for my day. She started by pooping -not one, but three times. She refuses to poop in a dirty diaper. She would wait until after I got her cleaned and dressed to go again. I am pretty used to this by now, so she had to turn it up a notch. She waited until I picked her up to burp her to spit-up all over my uniform. So, I went to change and this made me late for work. That's pretty much how the day went...to include locking myself out of the Lactation Station, with my 'accomplishments' locked inside. So, I had to get someone to pry the door open. I got a couple of guys from the shop to help me. These men looked pretty embarrassed. "Lactation Stations" are still pretty new in the military. But, they were helpful and respectful. Then I spilled my lunch all over the table. Then I said screw it and went home early. Sometimes it's good to be the boss. I am still dealing with a little bit of the post-partum issues. So, I deem these accidents to be 'zoloft induced'. Something tells me they can only be 'wine cured'. It will be nice to be done nursing so I can go have a glass of wine. Of course, by then my tolerance will be so low that one glass will rock my world. For the longest time, I had to mix formula and breast, but as of last week I am finally producing enough to say that the girl is straight boob fed -through a bottle.

Nana says she got two more boxes today. I say she isn't used to my shopping yet. She still has three more things enroute!  My brothers are going to love me! I sent their kids presents too! Ha ha ha ha. I am still laughing. And the silly thing is that I told Scotty to take credit for it and he said, "Sure". He jumped on it like a fat kid to cotton candy. I sent them each a couple hundred ballpit balls and a ladder toy to roll them down. I figure they will pay me back in a couple of years. But, for now I still love to spoil those four kids (two for Matt and two for Jarod). Still smiling at the thought of Robbie and Jarod Jr throwing balls all over the house. Kyleigh is big enough to dive in and play too. I wonder if I should have bought Olivia a different gift. She is a little on the old side. What do you get for a pre-teen girl that will drive the parents batty? Ohh the Liz Taylor make-up set! Muuuaaahhh babies!

Kyleigh and Jarod Jr Halloween 2010






Scotty, Robbie, me and Olivia





Happy Three Month Birthday Baby!

I can't believe three months has gone by so quickly. I am finally settling into a semi-decent routine. Baby girl is progressing nicely. She has started coo-ing and laughing more and more. That's not what I want to talk about today.

Today I want to vent about the Military's Family Care Plan. It's this extremely intrusive packet/contract amendment I am required to file within 60 days of my child's birth. Not everyone has to complete a Family Care Plan. Single parents and dual military must do it. Basically, it's all the paperwork to turn custody of my child over at a moment's notice. The good side is that this makes you dwell on the seriousness of the job and the possibilities that exist. It's good because the military member can use this as a tool to plan for their children's well being. It's bad because this is not why the military developed the contract amendment. And don't kid, it is exactly that- a contract amendment. If I don't turnover custody of my children so that they can send me

ANYWHERE in the world -at a moment's notice, they can (and will) fire me. Even after fifteen years, if I sign and turn in this paperwork, I can -in fact be terminated if something happens and my family care arrangements fall through. If I refuse to fill out and sign the amendment, I can be charged with Article 92 -"Failure to Obey a Lawful Order".  If pursued this too could result in my termination (or in Navy terms "Administrative Separation"). Some women think this is just another tool in the "Man's Navy" to force out women. We will save that one for another day. 

Here's the kicker of it: as long as I have braces I can't deploy with the Army (IA)...I can only deploy on ships and those are few and far between. And, I have already completed my IA duties.  I have completed my Family Care Plan, I just don't want to route it. I know that I don't have to deploy until August of next year...there's just something innately wrong in filling out paperwork to give away your child. I know it's only temporarily giving up your child -but it's still the same in my head. I guess it would be easier if I were dumb enough to believe that this program was designed to help families -instead of the "help" actually being a side effect of the military covering their butts.

I mean, c'mon...could you give up someone this precious?

Of course, I am going to turn in the paperwork. After 15 years I don't know how to not conform. Bottom line, if I found research that proved burning your skin off made your kids bullet proof, I would buy stock in BIC. The plan does make arrangements for my child in the event that I die today. So, I am doing it. And yes, your math is correct, I am a month late. But, in my defense, it was complete on time, I just haven't turned it in.

Speaking of which...don't forget to donate to the girl's college fund! >>>>>>>

Baby's New Cargo Pants

This is one product of yesterday's shopping trip. Man, she had fun. Right now she's fussy, so this is going to be a quick entry!

I picked her up from Tara's today where she spent the morning at the zoo. I am so lucky to have someone like Tara help me with her. So, I get her home and unlatch her car seat belts. Just as I go to pick her up...she explodes everywhere. I look at her and she looks back up into my eyes and stares at me with her eyebrows lifted and a huge 'O' shaped open mouth. The only thing I could think of is that this must be how I look at her when she poops. I stopped and laughed. The look on her face was priceless. 

We got to Skype again. I think she's getting the hang of it! 

Next step...get Aunt Suzi to Skype again. I haven't Skyp'ed with her since I was prego. 

Her new toys still haven't arrived -and Nana and Grandpa only got one box of gear. It seems all of her shipments are behind. We are waiting on her new books and a package from Grandpa and Nana too. It seems to me I have another shipment coming, but I can't remember what it is. I love surprises!  

For some reason the girl went another two days with no poo...then today...we ruined another pair of PJs. Immediately after I cleaned her up and put her in a new outift, she blew out the top of another diaper and ruined another onesie. Her third poo in the first hour this morning actually stayed where it was supposed to. I guess you can call it frustration, but we decided to go out and do some shopping. So, Annmarie was very good for lunch and then was great through 3 different stores. Several hundred dollars later...Annmarie is now stocked up with everything from new hooded towels to tons of gorgeous PJs and a new party dress for Anna's birthday party next weekend. Ohh wait til you see that one! It seemed like everywhere we went they had an awesome sale!  Lori scored some really good deals...so did I! I will try to put pictures up tomorrow. If anyone is interested...we should be available to Skype tomorrow around 5pm our time.

What a nice day. After a long hard week it was nice to get to sleep in this morning. We are still not sleeping all night, but hopefully...soon...hopefully. Today we got to video conference with Grandpa and Aunt Janyl! It was nice...Annmarie even laughed for Grandpa. Of course she farted at Janyl. That seems to be their bonding point. First she pooped on her, then blew up and destroyed one of the outfits Janyl sent, now farting when conferenced. I think Janyl is going to be the Aunt Suzi of my generation. I hope so.
I am trying to talk Kayla into Skyping with her niece, but its hard to get a hold of her. You know -life, a 3 hour time difference and such.
We were supposed to go to Balboa Park for the annual walk for autism, but the weather turned cold and I had to exercise a little ORM (operational risk management) and canex'ed the event.  I can't have her getting sick.
Instead we ordered pizza and chilled out at home for the day. It was nice. She's finally getting to the age where she giggles out loud a lot.
I definitely wore her out today. She didn't even want to stay in the bath tub that long tonight. Of course, that could be because she took a face dive and scared herself. Good thing Momma is always present.
After the bath I completed our ritual of baby lotion and hair combing. Then within 15 minutes, she was asleep in my arms. She is getting so big. And that hair...it has a mind of its own.

Tomorrow is Friday!!!

The girl loves her froggie! Above is a picture of my new Mother's Ring. I love it! I am getting her used to Skype. It seems to be a good way to keep her in touch with her family. Of course, there are a few technical issues, but it's worth it.

We seem to be backsliding a bit with the night sleeping thing. We were down to only getting up once a night. Now we are back to up 3 times a night. So, tonight we switched to the bigger bottles again. I am thinking maybe she is waking up so much because she is hungry. I am hoping it's not waking up out of habit. If it is, I am going to change up her routine this weekend. 

I am wondering if she is big enough to take to the beach yet. We went once before but I was really worried about the wind.

She is sitting pretty well...I had to cut her hair the other day because it was getting in her eyes. She sat pretty still (thank God)...I don't think I could handle her looking any more like Liza Minnelli. All I could think of was Lori's baby pictures. There's one where she has this really jacked up hair cut. Yes, Annmarie is the splitting image of Lori's baby pictures. I think I am going to ask to put one up. It's crazy how much they look alike.

As I get ready for the upcoming work week, I figured I would take a tally of all the baby clothes we have gone through this week.
1 pair socks (poo)
1 pair socks (lost 2nd one)
3 sets of PJs (out grown)
1 set of PJs (poo)
2 onesie (poo)
3 onesies (out grown)
2 pair pants (poo)
2 jumper style outfits (out grown)
1 belt (sucked up in Roomba)

I have a very full bag of hand-me-downs for Lori. I give them to her and she takes them to a young couple at work with a true newborn baby girl. She hasn't taken them with her in a few weeks.
This weekend we are going to definitely have to buy more PJs. I love shopping for the girl. You never have to ask if it makes her look fat. So much fun. This week we are moving up to Size 3 diapers. We went to them a few weeks ago for a day to see if it made any difference with the blow out problem. It didn't change anything so we went back to the Size 2's. Now she is more ready.
She has been having issues with drool lately. I can't believe that she isn't dehydrated due to all the drooling. At least it doesn't stain.

Having technical trouble tonight -so no new picture, but I figured I would put in some old ones.

Holy Crap

...more like unholy crap. I know all babies do is crap, eat and sleep. But does the crap have to be so toxic? I seriously think I am scarred for life. Today I washed 3 loads of laundry. In the past 2 days Annmarie has had 4 (four)...count them f-o-u-r -4 blowouts. When I use the term 'blowout', I mean it literally. When she poops, it is so forceful that it shoots up her back and out the top of her onesie. You can hear her poop. I am not talking about her grunting...I am talking about hearing the poop shoot out of her. At first I thought it was the diapers. So, I have tried one brand after another with the same results. It is her. I was giving her a 50/50 mix of formula and milk. The formula was upsetting  her stomach and made her constipated. I moved her to straight milk. After two days of no poop, we had 1/2 gallon of poop come out in a 5 minute period. It was sooo horrible. I took her into the bathroom to hose her off. I didn't even take the clothes off until after I got some of the poop off. Then of course, she was confused as to why she was in the bathroom if she wasn't getting a bath. I was cornered -either give her a full bath and let her play or listen to her throw a huge fit. Bath is after all, her favorite playtime. I didn't necessarily want to give her a bath right then and there because I still had poop all over the couch, the floor, and myself to clean up. She won. She got a bath and I cleaned up the living room afterwards. Here's the kicker of it all...none of the poop stains would come out. Now I understand why men have skid marks in their underwear. I figured they were just not washing their underwear soon enough. Nope, shit does stain. I lost a shirt and pair of jeans in the deal. She lost a blanket, a onesie and a pair of pants. The upside of this is that the bag of hand-me-downs is so full there wasn't room for this outfit anyway.

Hard at work on her phonics lesson...believe it or not, this was the only way to make her stop being fussy! I had a really good day with Annmarie! We spent the day getting organized. I started slipping when she was teething and never had time to get things back in order. Well, today was totally about sifting through things and putting them where they belong. Hopefully I will have time soon to put together her baby book. I have everything I want in it all in one box now. I finally had time to go through all of the bills and paperwork and such.
My mom has started Annmarie's baptism gown. Of course, it HAS to be handmade. My mom is funny because she hasn't sown since I was a little girl! I am steadily working to complete my RCIA classes so I can have her baptized in Florida. This way Great Grandma Kirk will be able to be there. I am so excited that my mom is making her gown. Should I send her a pattern, or let her pick out one of her own? Hmmm....if she drags her feet, I will pick out something extremely intricate. If not, it's her choice what my baby wears to her first big event.

Feeling much better today! Love it! She is getting such a personality-I love the sound of her giggles and laughs. Today she went to the lake with Tara and her two gorgeous little ones. She has been smiles all day! She is so patient with mommy. Mommy had a hectic day -so unprepared and disorganized feeling. Not to mention dropping two bottles of breast milk and spilling them all over the counter and floor, thinking I hit snooze when I really turned the alarm off... that was the theme of my day.
On the good side, Mommy has re-discovered the joy of online shopping! Turns out it's not just for jewelry and gadgets...
I was having an issue with grocery shopping and getting everything inside without either leaving the baby alone or carrying her back and forth to the car several times. I discovered a company called Melaleuca (out of Idaho)...now all of my cleaning supplies, vitamins, and hygiene products arrive at my door on demand! (Yaaaaa) and another company out of Chula Vista called Farm Fresh Meats for all of my frozen meats, seafood and chicken. Oh, and Melaleuca is all natural and cheaper, and so far the products work pretty good. Another fine thing I found to help us out is the Roomba ...turn it on...Annmarie has a cool toy to watch and the floor gets cleaned! Now if I could just get it to mop.
Phonics is going well. She is starting to show signs of knowledge. For instance, if I show her the word "toes" she looks down at them. It's hard to be sure, but I think she is starting to get it. Her eye-hand coordination is pretty poor still, but amazingly she has really good eye-foot coordination. She likes to lay on her back and kick her frog toy to make it ribit. The eye-hand coordination is important because several of the words she is learning are demonstrated with her hands -clap, wave, nose, mouth, arms up...
It is kind of funny to see her try to clap with her feet.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Today we were able to sleep in because Mommy had to work at a different place and time. Mommy was so excited to set the alarm clock for a whole hour later! ha ha ha. I have been practicing and still managed to wake her 20 minutes before it went off! She hasn't caught on yet that I deliberately wake her 20 minutes before the alarm because it's fun!

I don't feel well tonight...I got a little 'white bottle flu'.  (For those that don't know, this the child form of  'brown bottle flu'). Unfortunately, I have a slight fever and a belly ache. So my Mommy gave me an extra long bath and a full body massage then put me to bed early. I gotta tell you though, if she keeps taking my temperature, we're gonna have problems. I feel violated. I keep trying to tell her I am probably getting another tooth, but she hasn't learned to speak baby yet.

16Mar2011

Again, my little early bird decided to wake up 20 minutes before my alarm this morning. I knew it was going to happen when she woke up at 1am vice 2am...but what can you do? Please don't let this be a habit.

Although she refused to go back to sleep, she was very cooperative and sat quietly to do her phonics program! She is progressing pretty well. I am not pushing it because she isn't supposed to start this program until she is six months. However, whenever I see her staring at the TV, I turn the program on and... she loves it! She also loves when I read the books to her. Who am I to slow her down?
After all, she did graduate to 6 ounce feedings today. Yes, I couldn't handle feeding her four ounces every two an a half hours. So, tonight I tried 6 ounces and she took it all in under 10 minutes. I am so proud my baby graduated to big girl bottles! She is still using Dr Brown's bottles...they are much better than the leaky Vent Air bottles...so frustrating. I wish someone would have given me hints and tips before she was born. No, not really. I enjoy finding out new things and exploring baby life with her.
Speaking of exploring, we have been searching for flights to Pennsylvania for Aunt Janyl's graduation party! I am trying to work the logistics for traveling with a baby cross-country. Any tips on how to do it without unnecessary hitches are appreciated! What works best? I am all ears!

In the beginning...she was the size of a pea.

That didn't last long....

Nana tried to hold the precious new born...but she was too heavy.....

Then the Grandpa saved the day...thankfully he was fully recovered from his hernia :-) Muuuah!

But then she had lots of love.

From all of her aunts

until they wore her out! 

...and look, even Cousins aren't imune to Annmarie's magic!

One smile...and it's all over!

< 1 month old! Looking this beautiful requires lots of food and sleep!

15March2011

15Mar11
Well, baby girl is 10 weeks old! Today's adventure involved waking up several times...the last of course was due to the fact that the thermostat in my heater only works when it feels like it. So, poor baby was cold. I promptly warmed her up...and put her back to sleep. On a normal work day, I get up at 0500 and get ready then wake her at 0530 -and get her ready. This morning she decided to wake at 0510 and throw the morning off. It's ok though -she was all smiles and play! We got her dressed and ready to go...of course she is an expert in the hitman's deadly 'double-tap' mission. Yes, she did her morning duty then as soon as I got her cleaned and dressed, she filled it up again...and we had to start from scratch.

Of course, I was a little late...like I said, it's ok. But, as I was making up time I accidentally grabbed a single serve bag of veggies vice the ice pack that I put in the little cooler I use to transport breast milk at work. Nice.

Obviously you can see how this can happen.