Update on the 4 legged children

My poor Sadie girl has always been our angel. She is always so well behaved and with the exception of once when she was in heat (before she was spayed) and when she's been sick she's never had accidents in the house. Recently that all changed. Both of our dogs were having issues and this week it got really bad. Yesterday, I cleaned up no fewer than 3 puddles of pee, 2 of which I witnessed personally. That was my breaking point. Poor Sadie hasn't been able to hold it very long all week and I decided since I was off we were going to the vet to find out what was going on. It turns out that she is diabetic. We'll know more when we get the results of the blood work tomorrow. Diabetes is treatable and I'm glad that she has a legitimate reason for peeing on the carpet and that its not something she's just decided to do because she's mad or unhappy. Morey on the other hand seems to be peeing in the spots where Sadie already peed. Hopefully if she stops peeing in the house he will too.

Waiting Room Star

When I picked Nick up on Friday Ms. Ro said that he had a little bit of a deep cough. As the night wore on it got progressively worse and I could hear junk in his chest when he took a breath so I took him to Nighttime Peds. By the time we got there his fever was over 101. Nick was so good while they checked him out. He didn't even cry when they did the throat culture, although he certainly didn't like it. He doesn't' have strep so they think its just a virus. They gave him some Motrin while we were there so by the time we were back in the waiting room waiting to check out he was feeling pretty good again. He started singing the ABC's which was fine but he was singing the abcd underwear version. I asked him if he could sing the real version and he did, all the way to the letter Z which he then replaced with underwear. The waiting room cracked up. He was a total hit. Today his fever is gone but the croupy cough remains so we're staying home from the cookie exchange and enjoying a Mommy and Nicholas day while Daddy and Collin are at the party. I should probably also mention that potty training is a smashing success. We've had very few accidents. This is the very best Christmas present ever!

Keeping your kids healthy is expensive but worth it

Stop by the pharmacy for Motrin because you forgot to bring it with you when you left the house this morning- $7.
Co-pay for flu shots for two kids- $60.
Not getting the flu this season: Priceless

Another Visit to the Doctor

6 months ago Nick got his tubes put in his ears and today it was time for our 6 month follow up visit. So back to the doctor's office we went. Collin was a perfect angel while Nick was examined. Nick, on the other hand, was thoroughly pissed that the doctor was looking in his ears. He screamed and hollered and tossed and turned despite my best efforts to hold him still. In fact, his doctor commented that he is "freakishly strong". You should see the fights we have over getting into his car seats. There are many days when I resort to good old fashioned bribery because I can't take another arm wrestling match to get him in the stupid thing. Anyway, back to the doctor's office. Nick's left ear has been draining some gross stuff so we put him on drops yesterday. Today the doctor told me the right ear is full of fluid too but his tube is clogged and that's why its not draining. So now I get to hold him down to put drops in both ears for the next few days. On top of that he gets an oral antibiotic to try to clear up whatever else is going on since he's still coughing and hacking and is generally just congested. If I haven't mentioned it before (and I'm pretty sure I have) I HATE February/Winter! I just want my kids to feel better again. Poor little Nick wanted nothing to do with taking his medicine tonight when I offered it to him and I couldn't understand why at first. He's always taken medicine like a champ. However, the Tamiflu he was on last week must have really tasted bad because he got all upset any time I gave it to him. I finally mixed it with applesauce to make it more palatable. He must have thought his antibiotic was more of that because he ran away crying when I tried to give it to him. So I arm wrestled him down and got just enough to give him a taste in his mouth. As soon as he swallowed he sat straight up and opened his mouth nice and wide to take the rest and then he reached for the syringe to lick anything left on the outside and to try to suck out anything that might be left on the inside. I don't anticipate any problems tomorrow other than the ear drops. I'm pretty sure there is no way to sugar coat those and he absolutely hates them so if anyone knows of a good way to make kids sit still and not fuss about them, please let me know.

Yet Another Doctor Visit

We've been sick all week long. After Collin got strep we all went downhill from there. I am just finally feeling better after not being able to breathe for a week unless I used Afrin. Tim is getting what I had and we thought Nick had a cold. His cold has gotten worse. Sunday night we took him to Nighttime Peds because he was very cranky all day long and kept tugging at one of his ears. He was also very congested and had a yucky cough. They gave us an antibiotic because one of his ears looked red. The didn't say it was infected so I'm not sure why he got the antibiotic but I gave it to him anyway because his cough sounded so junky. He hasn't gotten a whole lot better although he has stopped pulling at his ear. Today when I picked him up the sitter said he'd had a rough day and you could tell he just wasn't feeling great. He was acting pretty normal though. I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and he didn't touch it. That is unusual for Nick. He usually cleans his plate and asks for more. He also felt hot to the touch so I took his temp with the ear thermometer that is a piece of crap and I'm going to throw away. It said his temp was 98.8. I felt Collin and then felt Nick and there was a very definite difference so I decided that as much as I didn't want to do it, I had to suck it up and get a rectal temp. I feel so bad doing that to my baby and I never really got a good reading because he was squirming so much. Once it said 102 I stopped trying. No point in torturing the kid, he's clearly very sick. So we made the appointment and took him in. He tested positive for RSV and Influenza. The doctor told Tim that we should go to our primary physicians and get some Tamiflu too because we'll probably get it now. Can I just tell you that I absolutely loathe this time of year. It's only the middle of February and Tim and I have both had to call out of work twice already because someones been sick. It's getting really old. I gotta hand it to my kids though, as sick as they've been they have been troopers. They've both kept a smile on their faces and been pretty pleasant. Not whiney at all like I would expect. The doctor told Tim that we caught Nick early and he's likely to feel worse over the next couple of days so I may have spoken too soon but he was all smiles when he got home tonight. He just wanted to cuddle, which I'll take. I just wish he didn't have to be sick to want to cuddle with his Mommy.

Darn it....

We've gone quite a while without making a trip to the doctor's office. Friday night Collin began complaining that his neck hurt. I looked and he had a gigantic swollen lymph node below his ear. I didn't have to feel for it, I could just see it sticking out. I figured that was why his neck was hurting. I asked if his throat hurt and he said no, his neck and pointed to the giant bump. I waited to see if it went down over night and it didn't so this afternoon I took him to the doctor's office. he has strep throat. Yeah! Now I get to take tomorrow off. Poor baby, he's really been doing very well considering. Since he doesn't act sick, I'm considering tomorrow a bonus day for the two of us.

18 months

How is it possible that my baby is already 18 months old? The time has gone by so fast. My sweet cuddly little angel is now a walking talking angel who wears his halo on a tiny set of horns. We had his 18 months check up the other day. He's 33 inches long and 28 lbs, little chunker. He still had an elevated temp so we lucked out and didn't have to get any shots. Nick's still battling this sinus infection or whatever it is that he caught last week. He's been running a low grade temp, 100-100.5, for about a week now but it finally seems to be going away. He still has his cough but that seems to be improving too. He's slept through the night the last two nights so keep your fingers crossed that the streak continues. The best part is that he seems to be more like himself the past couple of days too so I'm thinking we've turned the corner, finally. The doctor told us to call if he isn't better in another week. She even took a little blood to check his white count to make sure that she didn't need to change his antibiotic. He did so good when they pricked his finger. He didn't cry about that at all except while I held him so they could collect the blood from his finger, he was mad about being restrained, not that it hurt. Collin was really worried when he heard they were going to take blood from his brother but I told him not to be afraid and explained what was going to happen. I told him that he had to be brave for his brother and give him a big hug when it was all over and tell Nick what a brave little boy he was. Collin did great. He sat still and out of the way while we took care of Nick and then gave his brother a big hug and told him he would be OK. Have I mentioned that I hate this time of year? It seems like someone is always sick. I think I was in the doctor's office or hospital 6 times in the last week or two. I've filled my quota for the winter now so my boys are going to be perfectly healthy from here on out. Yeah, right. A mom can hope though right?

Update

Collin went to see the ENT this afternoon to see how he is healing. He's healed up completely and this whole thing is officially behind us now.

Nick has a sinus infection so he's under the weather. He woke up with a fever of 102.5 and nothing really brought it down so he slept most of the day. His fever finally seemed to break a little after dinner so hopefully after some antibiotics and more Tylenol and Motrin and a good nights sleep he'll feel much better, otherwise I'll get the day off tomorrow so I can stay home with him. Gotta love this time of year!

Nick

Friday Nicholas went for his well-visit (for those of you counting this does make 4 doctors visits in 7 days). He is growing like a little weed. He's already 25lbs and 32 inches tall! He had to get 4 more shots but he took them like a champ and wasn't even particularly fussy the rest of the day. The doctor says he's doing great developmentally as well so, all in all, this was a great visit.

Update

Since the very nice, but stupid, doctor couldn't tell me for sure what was wrong with Nick last night I had to take him to the doctor again this morning. She took one look at his rash, asked if it had started before or after the fever had broken (it was after) informed me that it was viral and he was not contagious after the fever broke and the rash would fade over the next few days. She also looked in his ears, determined that they were not infected and told me to stop his antibiotic. So, all in all, good news, except that I had to take an entire day off from work to spend 10 minutes in the doctors office so she could tell me my child was completely fine. Why couldn't the doctor have told me that the night before? Granted, if I needed to take a day off, this was a good one to take because we were closed anyway. I was just going in to do the stuff that needed to be done for tomorrow and to catch up on a ton of busy work I'd been saving for just such a day. Nick and I did go in for about an hour so that I could call tomorrow's patients. He sat very quietly and ate 2 big cups of animal crackers while I did what absolutely had to be done before we could leave. I was very proud of how good he was and how he left me alone while I was on the phone. By the time we left he was starting to get a little fussy. He conked out on the way home and is still asleep now. Bless his little heart, I doubt he'll want any lunch after all those cookies but when he wakes up I'll try making him something yummy anyway. I'm just glad he's OK and hasn't been spreading germs at daycare.

Blessing in Disguise

So for all my complaining about my ruined trip to Williamsburg, it was a blessing in disguise. We were supposed to leave Friday morning and didn't go because of the hurricane. Saturday morning Nick slept a long time, I mean a really long time. As in it was 10:30 and I was on the phone complaining to my mom about how hot my house was when I finally decided enough was enough and I needed go check on him because while he's a good sleeper, he's not usually 14 hours good and of course as I'm whining about my house being hot I'm starting to panic that I've over-heated my kid by not using the air conditioning. Totally dumb since if I had thought about it for more than 30 seconds I would have concluded that it was in the 60's all night long and his window was open, my house was only in the low 80's by 10:30 and while it was humid, it really wasn't all that bad. No way could my kid have gotten hot enough to cause damage. However, when I walked in his room and picked him up and felt how hot he was, all reason melted away and all I could think about was how to cool this poor child down. I gave him some water to drink and a nice cool bath (which he hated) before it finally dawned on my that I had not given my kid heat stroke, maybe he was actually sick and I needed to check his temperature. It was 102.7 so we called Nighttime Peds and took him in. The doctor wasn't sure what the problem was but noted that his ears were red around the tubes and put him on an antibiotic. The fever finally broke sometime Sunday evening but I noticed a very faint red rash on his legs. This morning, I tortured the poor guy to make sure he didn't have a fever and sent him to daycare because the rash seemed to be gone. However, when I picked him up from daycare I noticed the rash was back and it seemed considerably worse to me so I called Nighttime Peds again and brought him in to be sure he wasn't having an allergic reaction to his antibiotic. I still don't know what's going on. It's either an allergic reaction or hand-foot-and mouth disease, the doctor couldn't be sure and told me to follow up with the pediatrician in the morning. He didn't want me to stop the antibiotic so he must not be too worried that's whats causing the rash. I guess we'll know more tomorrow. In the mean time I am so wishing I'd done a flexible spending account this year because we have a well baby visit scheduled for Friday. If we actually get to go to that, we will have been to the doctor 4 times in 7 days for a grand total of $110 in copays plus whatever the prescription cost. All this money I've got to pay out anyway, I might as well pay it out pre-tax and get it back later in one lump sum. We will definitely be signing up for that next year!

A First for Collin

Last Friday I scheduled dental appointments for myself and Collin. I'm one of those freaky people who actually likes going to the dentist. I've only ever had one cavity (which I was a total weenie about and felt stupid about afterward but that's another story) and my husband makes fun of me because I'm anal about brushing my teeth at least twice a day and I make sure my kids brush their teeth as well. Nick actually crawls up on his stool every chance he gets and grabs his toothbrush and toothpaste and tries to brush his teeth. I'm creating little monsters but that's ok because there are a lot worse things to be obsessive about than oral hygiene.

Collin's appointment was scheduled for 2:30 and mine was at 3:15. We arrived and I barely had time to fill out the paperwork before they called us back to get started. Tim was going to meet us at 3 so he could take Collin home and I wouldn't have to worry about what he was doing during my appointment. However, when they took us back to get started the hygenist decided to start with me. I could not be more proud of the way Collin sat in the chair and played with some toys and watched everything that was happening. He asked lots of really good questions but he didn't get up and run around or go through all their drawers. I was just blown away by his behavior. When it came time for his turn, he was a little apprehensive. He didn't want to lay back in the chair but with some coaxing (and a little bribery) he laid in my lap and let the hygenist count and clean his teeth! Again, he was very well behaved. Tim showed up in the middle of it all but I was already done and had everything under control so he went to run some errands. Later, Collin told me going to the dentist was fun. Should be, he got a new train and some tracks out of it. The dentist told me that his teeth looked great, we were doing a good job brushing them. Really, he brushes them himself and I just "check" them afterwards. I was worried about how he would react to the dentist for nothing, it went great. I can't wait to take Nick too.

Guacamole is a bad word

Collin was back at the ENT today to follow up with the ear infection he had last week. It's gone but there is some fluid left in his right ear. We're just going to watch it for now. Both of his tubes are out and the holes where they were put in are closed so, aside from the fluid, everthing looks great. There is certainly no problems with his hearing. He hears and repeats everything you say. It was a good visit. Collin was well behaved and the news was good. Tim and I took the boys to Macaroni Grill for dinner on the way home and again, they were reasonably well behaved. The restaurant was basically empty because it was 4:45 when we got there so the few times I had to hiss at them to knock it off I didn't feel too bad about it. Since Tim picked the boys up and brought them to meet me for their appointments we had two cars so we each took a kid home. I noticed that the highway was backed up so I opted to take the back road to the highway. (Tim took the highway to begin with and sat in traffic for only a few minutes) A half hour later I commented "holy guacamole! There is so much traffic." Collin got upset and said "Don't say that Mom. That's a bad word!" Guacamole? OK. I was amused but let it go. Moments later I hear "Holy CRAP! That IS a lot of traffic. Damn it". Bottom line, in his little mind, guacamole is a swear word but crap and damn it are both OK. Not good. We had a nice little chat about how crap is not a nice word and shouldn't be used and if I hear damn it out of his mouth even one more time, there will be no more TV for an undetermined, but extended period of time. Honestly, I hadn't heard him say either one of those in ages so I'm not really sure why he pulled them out today. I'm hoping they go right back in the "words I'd better not use in front of the 'rents" folder and stay there for a good long time.

Nick

I know that you're not supposed to compare your children. Mine are certainly unique individuals with totally different personalities. Collin is very outgoing while Nick is a little more shy. They are both bright and have excellent motor skills. Both walked well by the time their 1st birthday rolled around, but Collin had a whole vocabulary by that point. Not just one or two words but probably 20 or 30 including things like thank you. Nick on the other hand only says Mama and Dada and Hi and something that sounds like Yeah when he claps his hands. He imitates us all the time and you can see he's comprehending what's going on around him. In fact sometimes I watch him studying things intently and then trying to do them himself. We took him today for a follow up appointment with the doctor to check his hearing. He hasn't had any more ear infections which is great but it turns out that both ears are full of fluid. Back in April one of his ears was still OK, so things are getting worse. In fact, his doctor said to me "No wonder he's not talking, he isn't hearing worth crap". We're going to check his hearing again next month and see if its gotten any better, if not Nick's getting tubes. My poor little guy! Both boys go for their well visits later this week. We're spending lots of time at the doctor's office again.

Daddy's Boy

Poor Collin has been complaining for 2 days of a sore throat so I finally took him to the doctor again today since his sinus infection from a few weeks ago really isn't much better and he also has a yucky cough. He is his father's child. He still has the sinus infection but they think he also has allergies, which explains the red, watery eyes we've also been noticing lately. (Tim's allergies are so bad he has to get allergy shots). He's back on an antibiotic for 10 days and Zyrtec for at least 2 weeks until we go back for a follow up. If that doesn't seem to be working we'll have to go see an allergist. Just what I want to put my 2 year old through; allergy testing. Its only about 40 sticks with a needle or something ridiculous like that. I don't even know if they test kids that young where I work. I might have to take him to a pediatric allergist. I'm so hoping that the Zyrtec will work and he can just stay on that and I won't have to put him through all that other stuff! He was very funny in the office today. They tried to take his temperature orally but he wouldn't cooperate so they took it rectally. As soon as she stuck the thermometer in Collin said "ooh, yuck!" followed by "it feels like poop, I have to poop". The poor girl taking his temperature was trying very hard not to laugh but I couldn't help it, I giggled because it was funny. After he was all done being checked out he looked at the doctor and said "Thank you. I feel all better now!" It was very sweet, but unfortunately not true. Hopefully, the medicines will help him. In the meantime I'm going to do some research on how to make the house less allergenic and pray to God he's not allergic to the dog and the bird.

Tim Rocks

I spend most of my time blogging about my kids and while I mention my husband sometimes it's usually just as it relates to whatever situation my kids have gotten themselves into so I thought I'd take a minute and mention that he absolutely rocks and I really do appreciate everything he does. Today, for instance, he switched his work schedule around so that he could be home with the kids since their sitter is off. Then he changed Nick's doctor's appointment from tomorrow to today since I told him Nick really isn't feeling well and I think he has an ear infection and I would have to take off tomorrow to get him to the appointment. He does, by the way, have another ear infection. This makes 4 in 3 and a half months! After he took the kids to the doctor, he picked up Nick's prescription and did a little grocery shopping since I didn't have time to go this weekend and he made dinner. It was a dinner that I wouldn't have put together but I really enjoyed it. He made salmon (which I generally don't like but Tim marinates it in something that makes it taste good) with vegetables (in a teriyaki sauce I think) and quinoa. I LOVE quinoa. According to Wikipedia:

Quinoa was of great nutritional importance in pre-Columbian Andean civilizations, being secondary only to the potato, and followed in third place by maize. In contemporary times this crop has come to be highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (12%–18%). Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete food. It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten free and considered easy to digest. Because of all these characteristics, quinoa is being considered as a possible crop in NASA's Controlled Ecological Life Support System for long-duration manned spaceflights.

You cook quinoa basically the same way you cook rice and we use it in place of rice with a lot of dishes, my favorite being Rachel Ray's Curry in a Hurry (I'll post the recipe soon). If you buy it in an organic food store like MOM's you can get it really inexpensively. Anyway, Tim made the entire dinner and when he served it, it looked and tasted like something you'd get in a restaurant. I was quite impressed with his healthy and tasty meal. He then cleaned up the meal while I spent some time playing with the kids. He watched the kids, cooked and cleaned and now he's busy studying. What a guy! Honey, you really are Super Dad!

Yet another doctor visit

I am really wishing I'd done a health savings account in addition to our dependant care account. Both boys were at the doctor today. It turns out they both have sinus infections. After the co-pay for the visit and 2 prescriptions it cost us $60. We were seen in a different office from the one we normally go to and they gave Collin a prescription for a medicine he's allergic to so I have to call tomorrow and get a different prescription so make that $70. And we were just at the doctor's office 3 weeks ago because Nick had an ear infection and Collin had a his sinus infection but they only gave him a decongestant for it last time. Still another $60 in co-pays and prescriptions. I don't know what the minimum you have to put away is, but I'm sure we could hit it pretty easily. I'll have to consider that next year. Anyway, aside from the green, nasty noses the boys are fine. Nick has had a rough couple of days at daycare but seems to be doing better tonight.

Yet another doctor visit

We made yet another trip to the doctor's office today because last night Nick had a fever and he's been pulling at his ears again. He's gotten up in the middle of the night the last couple of nights too which is just not like him. Sure enough, both of his little ears are infected again so we're back on an antibiotic. Fortunately for both of us, he takes his medicine like a champ. So in a few days he should be feeling much better. I'm already seeing improvement. I'm also already seeing a lot of poop! I think it's going to be a long 2 weeks for both of us.

Ugh...

Nick managed to pick up pink eye last week. He woke up Tuesday with goopy eyes and they didn't look red so I thought he just had a sinus infection. Then he woke up Wednesday with the same goopy eyes. So did Collin. Ok, it's obviously contagious so I took the day off work and called the doctor. Sure enough both kids had a mild case of conjuctivitis. After 5 days of eye ointment Collin's eyes look great. Nick's are still a bit goopy. I guess I'll just keep trying the eye ointment for another couple of days and then we'll call the doctor back if he's not getting any better. No clue where he picked this junk up but I'm really grateful that neither Tim nor I caught it. Apparently pink eye is rampant right now so they could have picked it up virtually anywhere.

Nicholas Update

My poor little Nick has another ear infection in both ears. He stayed home today with his Daddy while I went to work in the morning and we swapped around noon (Tim's new schedule is really working for me). By the time we got to the doctor his fever had reached 102. I'm not sure if it wasn't so high because I had him bundled up in a long sleeved onsie, fleece pj's, his jacket and a fleece blanket. That's enough to raise any one's temperature. He was as good as gold for the entire visit. He never even cried except when the medical assistant took him from me to weigh him. He's 18 pounds already! He's gotten so big. He even tries to pull himself if he's holding onto your hands. Anyway, we left the doctor's office with a prescription for an antibiotic. I'm counting. This is 2 ear infections in 2 months. At this rate, he'll be getting a set of tubes too. Hopefully, this will be his last ear infection for a while and we won't have to go that route. After a dose of his antibiotic and some Tylenol, he seems to be feeling better.