RUS's 18 month appointment

23 lbs 13 oz
32 inches

Everything looks and sounds great as far as his growth and development are.

The bad news is that both kids (yes, R had to go, too) were wheezing and got another round of oral steroids apiece along with more breathing treatments, and we had to keep them home from school today. Sigh.

Of course.

So day care has been going really well. RUS didn't cry during drop off today, either. He's napping well, and eating well. Overall, he's a happy baby.

And he has pinkeye, so he has to stay home tomorrow.

Sigh. It's always something, isn't it?

RUS has croup

Poor kiddo. He's been coughing at night and really wanting to be held a lot. So we're doing lots of holding and cuddling and such. We took him to the pediatrician today and he was prescribed a small dose of a steroid for the next couple of nights just to help him get better faster.

Rough Day

Today was difficult.

RUS did not sleep last night--he was wide awake at 2 a.m. until after 4, so, of course J and I were alternating being awake, too.

R has a cold and spent a lot of today insisting on being held and moaning. We think her 2-year molars may be coming in.

RUS spent a lot of today not napping and being fussy. He took his best, sustained nap at 4:45 p.m.

R did not nap at all.

RUS is going through a growth spurt and wanting to nurse A Lot.

Sigh. Tonight will be better, right?

Recovering!

As I've written before, R has been sick off and on for the last month. Just at the end of this week, though, the tide has started to really turn, and I feel like she is definitely feeling a lot better.

Some clues:

1) She's waking up around 6 a.m. instead of between 4:30 and 5:15 a.m.. We think that the later wake up is partly a result of her cough and sniffles clearing up so she's not as uncomfortable or as stuffy. Whatever the reason, it is wonderful to have us both be able to be in bed until 6, and sometimes even 6:15.

2) She's not waking up in the middle of the night needing J to go in and comfort her. (Lucky me-- he does all the night wake ups, because, he says, it's more effort to wake me up and explain to a very confused and groggy me what's going on than it is to just go in and take care of things himself).

3) Her nasal drip only needs to be wiped off a couple times an hour instead of every 15 seconds.

4) She's just more chipper. She has been getting into different songs and books the last few days. Not just going along with them, but being really enthusiastic about them and laughing-- oh, the laughing! that has happened a lot more lately it seems. Sweet baby laughter.

5) She's easier to cheer up and/or distract when she's having a tantrum. That's not to say she doesn't occasionally have a meltdown because I hold her spoon the wrong way or put the wrong lid on her sippy cup or grab the wrong book off the shelf, but they're shorter and she's more willing to be led in a different, happier! direction.

This is all good news.

Of course, it probably also means we're just at the end of one stage and ready to meet some other, new, parenting challenge. But for now, I'm just enjoying it. We had a really delightful day with her today. It helped, of course, that the weather was downright balmy and gorgeous.

Another whole week gone by already?

Sorry for the lack of posting this week. Work has picked up like crazy, and J and R have both had colds. We finally took R to the pediatrician today, who diagnosed her with an ear infection and bronchitis. She's back on another round of antibiotics and eye drops for the conjunctivitis in both of her eyes. I've been trying--but this is nearly impossible when her nose is running every 10 seconds--to keep her from rubbing her eyes right after wiping her nose with her sleeve. So far my efforts have been mildly successful. She frequently asks for a tissue instead of wiping her nose herself. It's kind of cute. She waves her fingers in front of her nose and says, "Ti-SHOE! Ti-SHOE! Ti-SHOE" until one of us rescues her.

More posts coming in just a few minutes...

The best laid plans of mice and men

This weekend so far has been a little rough. R had her doctor's appointment on Wednesday and came down the next day with a cough. J and I weren't too worried until she threw up twice. Then I came down with the flu, which sucked a lot.

It was such a disappointment to get sick right now because it threw a wrench in our plans to travel up to visit Grammie and Grampie and get to see Little Frog, who, we hear, is about to start walking on her own!!! They grow up so fast! I can hardly believe that our gorgeous little baby niece is turning into a toddler already.

But the good news is that I'm definitely recovered and R, while still coughing, is generally happy and playful, so we think she's on the upswing as well, too.

She's Sick... Boo!

December was already going to be a short month at day care (and we have to pay even for the weeks we're not going to be there) and this week R ended up with pinkeye in one eye so we kept her home on Monday. Then Tuesday she went back in only to have the day care call us around 10:30 to say that she had a fever. We got her on an antibiotic and kept her home Wednesday to ensure that she would get a good nap and plenty of TLC. Today she's still got a fever so we haven't taken her back yet. Hopefully she'll go tomorrow-- especially because I spent hours in the kitchen baking applesauce bread for each of her day care teachers!

But it feels like a huge gyp to have to spend $110 a week for three weeks in December that she won't even be at day care for. Sigh. We asked about not paying for the last two weeks, but this only means that they can't pay their employees, and we certainly don't wish that upon the teachers at the day care. They work hard-- it's not easy watching five 16-18 month olds at the same time-- and count on making their regular salary.

It's not like the money for day care isn't in our budget. It just feels so... ehh! you know?

No Pacifier, Day 3

I got a full report from J about how things went last night when I got home from work this evening. Apparently, around 2 a.m. R started waking up and being fussy. I really don't think this was pacifier related, because some of this waking up had been happening even when she was still using it, and when she would wake up, she would actually throw the pacifier out of her crib and not let us give it back to her.

I think she's having serious teething issues. She's got three or four new molars that are poking through and probably more teeth that are working their way out. Poor J was up between 2 and 5 a.m. trying to get her back to sleep--apparently she was up crying three times in between those hours.

Tonight she went to bed about half an hour early, with no problems at all.

As for J and I, we are tired and going to watch a movie and probably head to bed early ourselves. I've got a nasty cold and I'm planning on taking some cold medicine and curling up on the couch with some tea.

Weekend Update

R seems to be 90% better from her cold/respiratory infection. This is indeed cause for celebration. She slept a lot today, and had her fair share of crankiness, but her nose is not running and she has not had a fever since Thursday evening.

We've had a busy weekend, with a picnic on Saturday and running around town getting some shopping done today.

The funny thing is, though, that we've been getting up so early that when we left to go to the store, we were sure everything would already be open. In fact, though, it was only 9:00-- and nothing on Sunday is open at 9, really. It just felt later than that because we'd been up since 4:30 with R (well, actually, J let me go back to sleep until about 6:30) and it just seemed like it was late morning.

So we drove out to the mall where the Carter's store was (I wanted to get some long-sleeved onesies and some warm sleepwear for R, now that the nights are getting chillier) and it was only 9:30 and the store didn't open until 11! Because we were half an hour from home, we didn't want to waste the entire trip so we just killed some time by going to Office Depot when they opened at 10 to get a few things I needed for work and then browsing the grocery store that was right next to Carter's.

This Bites.

We kept R home from day care today because she was cranky as all get-out and we thought she would maybe recover better at home. I had her in the morning while J was at work and then he took over just before lunch.

Despite the fact that she took a good nap today, she's been soooooo cranky this evening, and right now is screaming in her crib. She doesn't want to calm down-- she doesn't want me to hold her, she doesn't want me to put her down, she doesn't want to run around, she doesn't want to do anything. I just hope she goes to sleep soon, poor baby, she's so tired.

UPDATE, Saturday Morning: I got her up and let her run around for about a half an hour and then tried to put her back down to sleep and she finally went to bed around 6:40 p.m. She seems to be much better today-- more chipper, at least!

Doctor's Appointment

Yesterday Rosemary had her first doctor's appointment for actual sickness, not just a check up. He diagnosed her with an upper respiratory infection and prescribed some antibiotics. No ear infection and she's doing well. She's just crankier, and she wants to be held all the time. Here's hoping she gets better really soon. It'll be nice to be able to have her running around instead of crying to be picked up whenever she's on the floor. Poor J had to make pizza dough and put together calzones while holding her the entire time. Trying to roll out pizza dough one-armed is kind of hard, he said!

Fever

Our little baby had a rough evening today. I got home a little bit before 5 p.m. today and found J sitting on the couch holding a hysterical and obviously incredibly tired baby. I took her from him right away and got R down to sleep while nursing her. She hadn't had any dinner because she'd refused everything J had offered. While I was nursing her, J took her temperature and she had a mild fever, 100.9. We gave her some tylenol and laid her down to sleep, and we'll keep close tabs on her over the next day or so. She's been sleeping since 5:30. It's 8:30 now, and there hasn't been hardly a peep from her, so here's hoping she gets a good night's sleep. Now I'm off to bed myself!