There is a big snowstorm blowing in tonight, so I need to make a trip out to the East Clinic to pick up a refill prescription of randitine for Morella since I wouldn't be able to do it tomorrow. Oh shoot, she is awake again. She drifted off to sleep at around 9ish giving me just enough time to eat something and then take a quick shower, now I am pumping because I didn't get to finish this morning's session. My plan was for her to stay asleep for another 15 minutes then I would change her diaper, drop her in her snowbunny suit, toss her in the carseat and haul her out on this little trip. Well, I got four minutes into it...lets see how much longer I can go before she starts to cry.

--- a couple hours later --

I did it! I left the house today! Hurray! I decided a few weeks ago that Wednesday was my Get the Heck out of the House day -- but because of the snow storm I figured that doing it tomorrow is out of the question. Can I just say I am sick of the snow and winter? I definitely have a case of the winter blahs. It occurred to me yesterday to ask Tim if babies are affected by the winter blahs too...and he said probably not, that she was too little and that she sleeps all the time anyway. HA! I wish! She is fighting sleep today that little bugger.

Well at least I finished the first afternoon pumping session -- How much you ask? This one yielded 7.5 ounces. I have been averaging about 35-40 ounces a day.

Anyway. So I managed a shower and got dressed. I bundled her up and we went to pick up a refill of her favorite medicine (sarcasm) then I stopped at Panera and had my first lunch with my little girl! Of course she slept most of it, but hey there is the principle of the matter. :D While eating, I called Tim to find out what the ingredients in Paczki (polish donuts) were and discovered I needed Plum jam. Well, Tim wanted jelly -- which is what I got -- but I ended up doing my first grocery trip with the Bit! I got a few other things while I was there, cereal, milk, granola bars, Toast Um's, bread, cheese curds, peanut butter cups, and I splurged and got some fancy soda for my afternoon date with Voyager. I got the new Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry Chocolate and some more Caffeine free Diet Coke. I figure a LITTLE caffeine won't hurt that much. I really wanted to try the soda -- it's tastes very chocolaty. Cool! When Target used to have their syrup additions I would always use that combo.

So yeah I ran errands with the baby today! And I have to admit I feel a ton better for getting out of the house and I feel a bit more prepared now that I stocked up on some fun stuff to eat while holing up for this storm. Oh and the check out lady was the daughter of one of our neighbor's that snowblows for us. We sent over some homemade valentine cookies and rice krispie treats the other week as a thank you -- I hope they are feeling charitable tomorrow! It sucks when Tim has to spend all his home time outside shoveling and not helping to take care of the baby. :P That was nice to see a familiar face and show off the baby. ;) Too bad I didn't think of going to the grocery store before I had left because then I could have brought my reusable tote bags I got last time. Ahh well, apparently I asked for paper bags this time and got two --that's okay because I have two packages I want to send out and needed some sturdy wrapping paper for them. We have enough doggy poo bags as it is.

I am sort of torn right now about cloth diapers. It seems when I use them more than 2 or 3 in a row her bottom gets bright red! We are using free and clear detergent and I am not using fabric softener in the dry cycle, I don't know why they are doing this other than the moisture is getting trapped in there and not letting it breath? I am also not comfortable changing her after eating because of her reflux -- she gets diaper changes before she eats. There have been a few times where if she is super fussy after eating and I do change them I come perilously close to getting barfed on. I am just not fast enough with the cloth diapers to change it in two minutes or less. I haven't discussed this with Tim yet but maybe cloth diapering will have to wait another few weeks until she hopefully outgrows this reflux or it gets better? Hm.

That brings up the barium suck/swallow study. I still haven't called the woman to set up a time for early March to have it repeated. A part of me is really afraid that she won't pass the test and we will be stuck thickening her milk forever! Or starting her on solids as soon a month four starts. I recall that she said we might be able to use a cup to feed her ... but I can't imagine doing any of that when she can't even sit up yet on her own. I know, these milestones are coming up, but since she is my first hands on baby -- I don't really quite believe that any of them will happen. I know that a bonafide laugh is coming up around the corner -- but really? I mean REALLY?

Tim said that she only has eyes for me right now. I don't think that's true. I think we need a full week or two of it to be really true. And then so what? After they become more aware eventually Mom gets the raw deal because Daddy become super special. Right?

I am working on a set of pictures to show you some of Morella's favorite things -- from Morella's point of view. But that will have to wait because I need to get the yeast started on rising before Voyager comes on. Yes. It's lame that I have one show that I looked forward to every day -- but it's my Calgon. I don't know what I am going to do when the series finally catches up to where I had left off --- hopefully it will be spring by then and I can leave the house.