Xander, Emilie and Baby #3 » January 2008 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Thu, Jan 31, 2008 3:57 PM
Emilie had her 15mo well baby, excuse me, well big girl visit on Wednesday. As always, the ladies at the desk ohhed and ahhed over her, telling how much they loved her blue eyes and blond hair and how pretty she is. Emilie gave them her normal response by acting all shy and smiling sweetly. The next stop was measurements. She’s now 23lbs 12oz, about the same weight she’s been for the last few months, give or take a few ounces. She measured in at 32in. That puts her at 50-75th % for weight and 90th % for height. And she’s our small child!! :o)

Dr. Duck came in for a quick exam and opened the floor for questions. We updated him on her progress in physical therapy. She’s still not crawling but she does try. She’s also now able to sit up from being on her belly or back, she’s able to pull up on her own, she voluntarily kneels now, and she will plop down on her bottom. Those are HUGE advances for Miss Em! We also told him that she can walk on her own but she lacks the confidence to let go of our one finger and go. (Most recently she walked halfway across the kitchen from Daddy to Mommy on her own!!!) At that point of the exam, he was checking her hips and legs and said he can’t find a reason that she shouldn’t be able to crawl but was concerned that she still couldn’t/wouldn’t. He said to give PT another couple of months and if she still wasn’t crawling, he’d refer her to another pediatric physical therapist. She specializes in kids with major physical problems/delays (such as kids in wheelchairs). Em would be a special case for her, obviously. We’re pretty satisfied with her progress so we have no intention of sending her there.

Mommy also asked about how much she should be saying at this point. He asked what she can say—daddy, doggy, no no, uh oh, whoa, Donna, and mama. We told him that she used to be able to call Xander and Mama by name but now everyone (Xander, Mommy, Grandmas and Grandpas) is daddy. He laughed and said it’s not uncommon for second kids to speak less and later than the first child. It’s normally because the older sibling speaks for them. He suggested Mommy picking out a few books and Daddy picking out a few different ones and reading them to her repeatedly. I told him that Emilie’s idea of reading a book is flipping 1 or 2 pages and throwing it on the floor and grabbing the next one. Making her sit still to listen to one almost always results in a fit. He then suggested SHORT books and to use funny voices while reading to hold her attention and to name the items in the pictures for her. So far we’ve identified 3 books that she loves to read and she even tries to mimic the animal sounds now (and is very proud of herself when does it—it’s soooo cute!!).

We also pointed out the fact that she was coughing pretty bad and had a runny nose again. Since Xander was also in for his pneumonia follow-up visit, he gave her a thorough exam to make sure she wasn’t coming down with the same thing. He listened to her breathe, checked in her ears and nose, and looked down her throat. He said that she didn’t appear to have anything more than a virus but to call back in if she started getting worse.

Next was Xander’s follow-up. We told him that his fever broke by late Saturday-early Sunday after starting the Zithromax. His appetite still wasn’t back to normal but it was getting better. In general, he was acting more like himself (wanting to play again, energy level returning to normal) but the cough was still terrible. He listened to his chest for quite awhile and said he didn’t hear any pneumonia crackles anymore!! YAY!! Although the cough will take a few weeks to go away, he offered an alternative treatment to help. He grabbed a few samples of a (steroid) inhaler and showed us how to use them. He explained that this steroid was a little stronger and would get into his lungs better. He would need to take 2 puffs twice a day. He also said that we could start weaning him off the breathing treatments. Cut back to 3 per day for a week or two, then down to twice a day, then stop them altogether (if he’s doing less than 2 per day, it’s not worth it). If he starts to have trouble again, start them back up. Keep using the inhaler and treat it the same as the breathing treatments—use as needed. So far we haven’t used the inhaler and he doesn’t seem to need it. The cough has been getting progressively better so we’re weaning him off the treatments now. Woo hoo!!

Next came the shots for poor Em. She is such a trooper!! A few tears in the office and that was the end of it. No sign that they bothered her AT ALL afterwards (other than a swollen, bruised thigh).

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Tue, Jan 29, 2008 2:08 PM
A quick…OK…VERY long update on the illnesses that just won't go away!

Poor Emilie came down with a sinus infection on the same day the physical/occupational therapists came in November. Daddy had one tissue for her nose and another for her eyes. Our lover of medicine didn't seem to mind the antibiotic at all! In fact, she got made when each dose was done!

That was November, nothing compared to December. I already posted an updated on Xander's bout of the 24hr stomach bug. We thought Emilie was in the clear when she didn't have it the same day or next day. Ha! We were wrong! She woke up SCREAMING around midnight and I sprinted in to check on her, fearing what I might find. Yep, she'd tossed her lasagna all over herself and her crib. (In hindsight that wasn't the greatest meal choice. Pasta was always a meal she couldn't get enough of but has just now started to eat again.) Poor Em got sick every 14min on the dot for the next few hours. I held her in the kitchen and Daddy would run up with a bucket as soon as she moved (she was otherwise motionless). About an hour in, she starting crying whenever he came near her! ;O( By the end, she was doing nothing but dry heaving. It was heart wrenching!

Xander was having a great time though! All the activity obviously woke him up and he thought it was play time! At about 4:30am, she was finally done and resting. It was another night of sleeping in the basement on the couch bed for Mommy though. The next day we all stayed home. Daddy was also not feeling well but luckily it wasn’t as bad for him.

Then came another round of sinus infections. About a week before Christmas, they both had runny noses and eyes—both clear at that point. We took them in, knowing that they were still colds at this point, so that we could prevent a mad dash back to Brownsburg at Christmas time this year. (Remember 2006 was a mad dash back that resulted in Em being hospitalized for RSV and pneumonia and in 2005 X was in the ER with croup.) Thinking that we were just going to get scripts to fill when/if we needed to and sent on our merry way, we were told that Xander’s had already progressed into a sinus infection but Em’s was still a cold. However, Em was all green with gooey eyes by Dec. 23rd so she got her script filled in Portland. Note: This was sinus infection #2 in 2mo for Em.

Everybody seemed to be recovering okay until we got back to Brownsburg. A cough usually develops at the end of a sinus infection as all the drainage moves into the chest. We weren’t surprised when X started coughing. But then they became coughing fits that would last ½-1hr in the middle of the night. Nothing stopped it. And he only did this at night. He really didn’t cough much, if at all, during the day. After battling this problem for about 2wks, we started to wonder if he was allergic to the down pillows and comforter on our bed (we don’t battle him anymore—the only way any of us sleep is if we’re in Mommy and Daddy’s bed). We stripped the bed that night and his coughing almost immediately stopped.

We thought we were geniuses! Then we starting getting reports that he started coughing all day long at Donna’s and would sleep fitfully, if at all, during nap time. At about the same time we noticed Em had a tooth that was really trying to come through. It wasn’t bothering her but she spiked a 102 fever at Donna’s one day, which meant another trip to the doctor.

Once again we were told that it was probably a virus. It was too high to be teething (notice—he acknowledged that there are fevers associated with teething!) but everything was still clear. If it went green again, we were supposed to bring her back in. That would be sinus infection #3 in 3mo. He didn’t realize that and said we’d start treating her for allergies if that were the case. AAAHHHH! Mommy is looking into the future for her, knowing her family history. Food allergies (Grandma Cindy is allergic to just about everything other than rice and Aunt Jenny has some), seasonal allergies (check again for Grandma and Aunt Lisa), allergies to everything else on the planet (check again for Grandma Cindy).

While there, Xander was also examined to figure out his cough. Dr. Duck could find no sign of an infection so he put him back on breathing treatments—Xopenex 3 times a day and Pulmicort once a day. He’s also supposed to have another during the night if he has more coughing spells. Dr. Duck is basically treating him as if he has asthma. Great! These are a blast!

He does really well with them at Donna’s. He sits on by himself and holds the mask while they all get to watch cartoons. All the kids are fascinated by the machine. They say he’s a fire breathing dragon! :o) But at home is a different story. He fights us tooth and nail most of the time. He absolutely refuses to hold the mask by himself and he doesn’t like the string on it. The one good thing is that we’ve gotten to watch most of our stock of Disney DVDs (that means a movie other than Disney Cars!).

Just when we were starting to settle into this routine, he throws us another curve ball. Friday (1/25/08) at 3:30am Daddy wakes up and notices Xander is on fire. He was running a 103 degree fever! Another trip back to the doctor. I told him that the cough hasn’t improved any during the past 3wks of treatments so he upped them to 4Xs a day. After his exam, he reports a crackling noise in his chest. He ordered 3 days of Xithromax over the weekend followed by another round the following weekend. Then he said he was also ordering a chest x-ray. I knew that meant he suspected pneumonia. I didn’t realize until after the x-ray that he’d already diagnosed him with pneumonia! (X wanted to go to the hospital cafeteria—he remembered it was there when he went with Daddy a year ago!—so I read his sheet while he drank some milk.)

Saturday morning he had to take breaks while building blocks with his Legos! It was too exhausting! Thankfully his fever finally broke late that afternoon. That night he was running around playing with Andy and Lisa—you would have never known he was sick! The cough is still there and he’s still not eating. He has to go back in tomorrow for a follow up visit, the same time as Em’s 15mo well baby appt. While we’re there for those 2 things, we’ll also have Em checked out for the cough she’s starting to develop!

WILL IT EVER END?! :o) Can you see why there haven't been many updates lately? Not to mention that our laptop is also about to be trashed!

Comments:
The Mitchels: Well, we're so sorry! No wonder you haven't met Bree yet!!!!! We will look forward to seeing you all soon, when everyone is healthy-good luck! Alli really misses Xander!
:)
Love, The Mitchels

Heather: :-( So sorry you are having so much trouble! Hope everyone feels better soon! Take care of each other and know we are thinking about you.

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