Odds and Ends

I think I can confidently say that everyone is finally healthy.  Elli has a lingering goobery eye issue, but it doesn't seem to be bothering her other then when I have to pick at her eyes to get all the crusties/gunk out.  She hates it, but if I don't do  it, her eyes get stuck together.  And I imagine that that can't be very comfortable.

Addi had her appointments with audiology and ENT last week.  We received some very good news from audiology...although Addi has had so many ear infections recently, they have not affected her hearing.  She does have a little trouble hearing some lower tones, but that's very common when there's fluid behind the ear drum (which she has).  We're very glad that she can still hear just fine.  Not that she always listens!!  However, at least we know that she can hear us!  But yeah, so she's lined up to have tubes placed on April 4th!! 

Lastly, we were in my hometown this weekend celebrating my grandma's 90th birthday.  It was really nice seeing that entire side of the family again (it's quite a large family).  Anyway, little Livi thought she'd hang around the food tables almost the entire 3 hours we were at the party.  I've never seen that little girl eat so much before in my life!  It was actually kinda funny.  I kept imagining her thinking "don't mind me, I'm just going to try this chip.  And maybe this strawberry.  And maybe this cheese.  Hmmm, this pickle looks really good.  Oh, a piece of chocolate, don't mind if I do!" 

I Love You

Here are a couple short (really short) clips.  Ignore the big old purple comforter in the background.  Nate uses that when he sleeps on the couch.  And no, not when he's in the doghouse!  Then I make him sleep without blankets.  Just kidding.  Enjoy!

If you double click on the video, it will open up YouTube which will make it bigger (not that it's necessary).  And I might try to get a couple better ones when A) Livi is looking at the camera and B) Elli isn't being cranky and trying to steal Addi's thunder.

Sick, sick, sick.

One, two, three..  First child, second child, third child.  Whichever way you want to look at it, all the kids have been sick.  And not just a little sick.  Pretty gosh darn sick.

Loooong story short.  We're on day number 9 of treating fevers.  Actually, we're down to just treating one kid though, so that's good. Day one started with Adalyn, then throw in Alivia, and eventually add Elliana.  Then phase out Addi, and finally Livi, and now Elli's bringing up the rear.  At one point, there was a 60 hour span where I dispensed a little over 30 doses of Tylenol or ibuprofen.  I was alternating meds every 3 hours in an attempt to control the fevers, but I seemed to be losing.  The minute I thought that the fevers broke and stopped giving any fever reducers, bam, back up to 102-103.

To keep everything straight, we were writing down what med (ibuprofen or Tylenol) was given and at what time for each of the girls.  And they each had their own bottle of meds labeled with their names...in hindsight, that probably did little to prevent the spread of any germs.  Oh well, I tried.  Three bottles of Tylenol, three bottles of ibuprofen and Addi's bottle of antibiotics (oh yeah, she has ear infection #5 in the past three months) sitting on our counter.  Fun times, fun times (yes, lots of sarcasm in that statement).

Dr K thinks the big girls actually contracted influenza.  She told me that at Elli's well-baby check.  So we were doing everything in our power to keep Elli separated from the big girls to keep her a "well-baby."  But we failed.  By Sunday, she had the exact same symptoms as the girls.  And today, after a rough, rough, rough night filled with shrill screaming (this is the child who rarely cries), a 103.3 temp, some wheezing, refusing to eat anything, etc, she was seen by a different pedi and diagnosed with a bilateral ear infection.  So more antibiotics in this house.  I'm really getting sick of ear infections.

Anyway, if this post is all over the place, I apologize.  My mind is all over the place.  And my days have all run together.  Prime example...I'm Catholic.  It's Lent.  Not supposed to eat meat on Fridays.  I ate meat.  I had no idea it was Friday.  Good night!

All about Elli

In just 2 days, my baby will be six months old.  I'm not exactly sure how that happened.  Six months.  For real?  She had her 6 month appointment today and she's a big, healthy baby!  She's 27 1/2 inches long (the 97th percentile) and 17lbs 9oz (the 80th percentile).  Holy moly!  To put that in perspective, Addi and Livi weighed 17lbs 8oz and 17lbs 10oz at their NINE month appt!  She split the difference between them...except a full three months early.  Yes, she's a big 'un.  However, if you compare her weight for length, she's actually in the 30th percentile, so she's technically kind of a skinny thing. 

Besides being about as big as a 9 month old (well, MY previous 9 month olds anyway...who were kinda little on the growth charts), she's meeting many of the milestones of a typical 9 month old.  In fact, Dr K and I were joking about whether or not we have her birthdate right!!  She looks like a 9 month old, she acts like a 9 month old - if it looks like a duck and acts like a duck, it's a duck, right?  Anyway, she did fanstastic with her shots.  I think she cried for all of about six seconds.  Just as long as it took for me to pick her up and say "shh, shh, shh."  Done.  And even a smile at herself in the mirror!!  Amazing.

Now, in order of occurrence.  She went swimming for the first time at the end of February.  But leave it to me (forgetful mommy) to leave her swimsuit at the house.  You see, we took Addi and Livi first and then brought them home for nap time.  So then we loaded up Elli.  And in the child switch, I forgot her swimsuit!  At least I had her swim diaper.  Yeah, so the poor thing had her first swimming experience wearing her onesie.  Oops.  She was rather indifferent to the whole swimming thing.  I thought for sure she would like it more.  But maybe she was just getting tired.

Other Elli news is that she's now officially a roller...from front to back as well as back to front.  She rolled from back to front on March 1.  But in true Elli fashion, it took us a week to get it on film (same thing happened with her first smiles).  She's a stinker that way!  I left the room to attend to the girls, came back, and she was on her belly!  So I got the video camera, flipped her over and filmed for 10 minutes.  Nothing.  I gave up, took the camera back and when I returned, she was on her belly again!!  Rinse and repeat for a week...then I finally caught her.

Last Elli news.  She has a tooth!!!  I'm excited but so sad at the same time.  She's growing up too fast.  I'm gonna miss my toothless, gummy grins.  Bummer.  But yay for teeth...I guess.  Oh yeah, but to go right along with my atypical children, she has actually slept *better* while cutting that tooth than she did before!  I remember back when Addi slept through the night for the first time when she was 7 months old, a couple days later, she cut a tooth!  Well, Elli is getting up twice a night right now, which is better than the 4 times she was before.  I should've known there was a tooth coming!!  Instead of becoming restless sleepers, my kids become great sleepers!!

And just because...

How sweet am I?

She loooves playing with her feet.

Addi update

Well, her appointment with Dr K wasn't as straight forward as I was expecting.  I was expecting a simple discussion like "yes, ear tubes would probably be a good idea, let's get her in to ENT" or "no, she doesn't quite meet the requirements just yet."  But nope.  That's not what happened at all.

Instead, Dr K talked about an MRI of her head (specifically her inner ear), possible allergies, possible headaches and/or possible light sensitivity (due to her vomiting).  Essentially, she said that Addi's presentation of symptoms is abnormal for simple run-of-the-mill ear infections and she's wondering if there's something else going on.  In addition to the vomiting, Addi has tended to fall alot in the past few months.  We just chalked it up to a 2 year old who's too excited to get somewhere too fast...so the carpet jumps out and gets her.  But it's concerning enough to Dr K that she's seriously wondering about inner ear involvement causing vertigo...which would in turn cause her to fall more often and possibly be nauseous and therefore, throw up.

Or the vomiting could be related to headaches.  Or to light sensitivity.  Or blah, blah, blah.  My head was spinning by this point.  Also, do you know how concerning it is to a mother when your child's doctor says that she's "perplexed" and then breaks out the tape measure to measure the size of your child's head to make sure it plots well on the growth curve?!  No, um, sorry doc, you're not supposed to be perplexed.  In fact, this is supposed to be pretty gosh darn simple.  Yeah, so much for a straight forward visit!

Anyway, if MRIs on 2 year olds were easy, she said we'd be taking that route first.  Unfortunately, the sedation for an MRI of the head would be much, much longer than sedation for ear tubes.  So for now, we're meeting with Audiology and ENT on March 23rd with probable ear tube placement thereafter.  If she doesn't have a resolution of the vomiting and tripping after tube placement, we'll be getting the MRI.

Oh and Addi had to have blood drawn before we left.  She handled it like a champ!  She was so proud of her Bugs Bunny band-aid!!