Smile Belle

This is what I get when trying to make her smile!! A nose curl :) guess I need to break out the big camera so she laughs more.

Tchau,
Sara

5 Week Check-up

Yesterday we went to a pediatrician in Macae just in case Belle had an emergency we would already know someone.

Nate and I walked in the building and immediately I felt like I stepped into a building somewhere in India. The atmosphere screamed third world and I wanted to take Belle and run. The waiting room, littered with mothers and their children, contained ten plastic waiting room chairs and a receptionist from a Stephen King novel. We opted to wait outside until Belle decided it was time to eat.... Every other mother had a boob out so I squeezed in between two people to take my seat and whip out the boob.

Imagine squeezing in to find a seat to BF your baby in a room like this?

As Belle was eating I thought to myself, how things have changed in my life and how far out of my comfort zone I have flown. I would never do this in the US. Well, I would but I would cover up and probably find a small corner to sit in and not just show the world! I could see Nate through the sliding glass door and every once in awhile we would catch each other's glance and smirk at the scene. Finally Belle finished up and I quickly cleaned up, got up and passed her to Nate outside. I went and waited inside for our name to be called per Nate's orders and against my wants.

The view in the doctors office didn't ease my worries of contracting something deadly. While we talked to the doctor both of us couldn't help but notice the rusty scale and exam table. The doctor brought up the fact that we haven't got the Tuberculosis vaccine yet and all I wanted to say was, "hell she doesn't need that she needs a Tetanus before coming to your office". I kept my mouth shut because I knew there was no real danger.

Belle's Stats:

     Weight= 5kg (11lbs)!! An increase from 3.7kg (7.7lbs) at birth
     Height= 58cm (22.8 in)!! An increase from 52 (20.5in) at birth

I just can't believe how much she has changed in the past month. She really is growing too fast. The doctor told us to watch her weight because it was above average percentile wise... then he showed us her height on the same graph for percentiles and she was almost in the 100th percentile. Shouldn't we take that into consideration when telling us to watch her weight or does he want us to watch that too! Ha! Belle looked like a toddler compared to the other babies in the waiting room so I am guessing that he is not used to big gringo babies :)

Overall things went fine. I really was a shocked to see the difference in health care in Macae compared to it in Rio. We will not be seeing that doctor again unless we have an emergency. Next month we will be traveling to Rio the Pedi that went to her delivery and she will get her immunizations. For now I will just focus on keeping her healthy and happy.

Tchau,
Sara

1 Month

A week late but here are some 1 month old photos. I love that she is smiling so much these days. Nothing better than seeing a response after weeks of blank stares. Belle also started recognizing people and stares at everything!

Just looking at these makes my heart melt so much. I still have to pinch myself because we have a baby and it's already been over a month!!

Tchau,

Sara

Play Time

During our rough no sleep night and day we still managed some developmental play time. She finally tolerate the swing for more than two minutes. I actually caught her smiling and playing in it!! Then we did a little tummy time... She didn't like it too much and rolled over to her back. Fingers crossed that she sleeps tonight because I am walking dead right now :)

Tchau,
Sara

Lobster Time!

I asked Nate if we could grill out hamburgers tonight and he brings home a kilo lobster. Belle out weighs him for sure but he challenges her length! We shall see how this endeavor turns out. We have to grill him and I bet it turns out dry. Nate is pretty good with a grill so it should be interesting!

Tchau,
Sara

Ps- we also have hamburgers... Good thing I can eat an entire grocery store these days ;)

Karma

Yesterday I laughed at my mother in law for blowing out her curling iron in the hotel. She plugged her 110V beauty supply into a 220V outlet. Needless to say the device smoked and quit. I smiled and laughed because I have been there before. Luckily my hairdryer didn't blowout but ever since then I have tried to be careful or at least aware of what devices could handle 220V.

The thing is, is that in Brazil some outlets are 110V and some are 220V. In our house we have both voltages depending on the need for the room. Nate went around with a volt meter and labeled each outlet to make sure blowouts didn't happen.

After dropping the parents off at the airport we returned to the hotel which only has 220V outlets. I plugged in my breast pump and after 3 seconds of running the entire electricity in the room shut down. I could smell the burning of the circuit board and my now bruised boob pulsated from double the suction. I can't believe that I didn't double check the voltage!!!

To make matters worse is that the warranty is out on the pump and Brazil doesn't even sell this type of pump. I am not even sure that they sell breast pumps at all! I have never seen them sold in any store and even if they did then the price would be ridiculous. The price in the US was ridiculous.... uggh!

Example of what I lost.... :(

Don't you just hate yourself for doing stupid things that cut your legs out from under you? I wish that I could blame someone or something but I am responsible for this mess. The freedom I felt from being able to give Belle a bottle and the bonding that Nate was able to achieve is severed. Now I really will have to be with Belle 24/7 for her every feeding need.

On brings the search for some sort of pump even if it is handheld. If all else fails then we will have someone bring down another pump for us. Probably not the same one but a very very cheap version like below!

Old school handheld....

Who knows, maybe the pump will come back alive... wishful thinking I know but that would make my day so much happier.

Tchau,
Sara

Helpin Out

Isabelle helpin out daddy with a little work for the night! Too cute to pass up a photo op :)

Tchau,
Sara

Don't Say the S word

By the S word I mean Shower... get your minds out of the gutter! I swear that each time I even mention taking a shower, Belle perks up and belts out her disapproval. Who knew that a moment of bliss for her mother would evoke such a strong emotion. One day I will be clean again. Until then I will continue to smell like sour milk which is another post all together.

Tchau,
Sara

The Great Diaper Search

Remember that I had previously posted that all diapers are not created equally? Well it seems that I keep finding that out the hard way!

I thought once you found a diaper brand and specific type that you liked the search was over. Little did I know that as your little one grows into a new size sometimes the diaper brand and size might change too!

Belle grew out of the newborn size, RN, and into the P size.... well P in Pampers just didn't cut it! She was too small for the P and too big for the RN. What's a girl to do? So I tried Johnson and Johnson. All was great except the tabs kept messing up resulting in messy baby, messy mom and messy bed. Perfect equation for unhappiness.

I finally crafted the Pampers to work then I opened a new package and my world fell apart. Turns out that Pampers had a manufacturing problem. They forgot to put a tab on both sides of the diaper.... what? At that moment I could have filmed a kickboxing video with all the air punches and air kicks I did. That should be illegal. How can a company leave a mother with a package of diapers that don't work? Uggh. Good thing Nate was here so I could run back to the drug store and purchase some more diapers.

Nana came with me and she wanted me to take the package back to them to possibly get my money back but you have to pick and choose your battles here and I just didn't want to deal with it. I did tell them what happened and before I left the store I opened the package to check them. Once again the package had the malfunction which left the store clerks dumbfounded. I asked for a different brand, because at this drug store you have to ask for the diapers they are not on display, and was brought a brand by Huggies called Monica.

This brand Monica was a gift from God! The size is perfect. The waist band amazing and snug. I see a dry future for my little girl and a happy momma :) Everything happens for a reason but I wish it didn't involve poop and pee...

Tchau,
Sara

Many Faces of Belle

The wide array of faces that change with each click of the camera! The smiling has started but I have yet to capture the full thing. The best time to get a sighting is early in the morning but I usually am not fully operating.

Tchau,
Sara