Spring is slowly approaching

Mother Nature keeps teasing us.  Just last weekend we had all three girls outside in the backyard - the big girls were in shorts and t-shirts and Elli was wearing a onesie.  And now this weekend, it's been snowing!!  However, Elli sure enjoyed her first experience in the grass.  I remember the big girls being less than thrilled about the prickly green stuff on their bare legs.  But Elli is proving again and again that she's quite different from her sisters!!  Her eating habits, her size, her preferences...she's definitely not like them!

My Dancing Queen

Here's a video flashback.  I was looking through some old videos and this one made me smile.  It was in Feb 2010, so the girls were 16 months old.  Livi was our little dancer, but Addi never really took to it.  I love how she's so proud  of herself and claps before the song is even over!!

Quick medical update

Addi's ear tube surgery was a success!!  One of the hardest parts about the day was not letting her eat anything after midnight or drink anything after 4am.  I was hoping that she wouldn't wake up too early in the morning otherwise she would've been begging for breakfast or for a snack, which would've forced me to put her in the car and drive around town until we could check in!

Anyway, we checked in at 7:45am.  We met with a couple nurses, the anesthesiologist and the doc.  She was finally taken back to surgery at 9:12am and I was able to see her again at 9:27am!! Talk about quick!  She was very, very sad coming out of anesthesia.  But that's pretty common...it's a pretty disorienting experience.  The doc said the procedure was flawless.  He sucked a lot of very thick fluid out from behind her eardrums, so she's on some antibiotic drops for the next couple of days to make sure that the thick fluid doesn't clog the brand new tubes.  We'll have her post-op visit in 2 weeks.  Hope it's all good news!!

And then yesterday, both of the girls had their 2 1/2 year check up.  I learned my lesson from their 2 year appointment and I took them at separate times!!  Six months ago, it was an awful experience.  If one cried, the other cried.  And Elli was along (she was just a wee little 1 month old then), so she cried too.  Ummm, mom and dad ran out of arms to hold crying children!!  The nurse had to jump in to rescue Elli.  But yeah, I took the girls at different times to avoid them feeding in to each other and it also provided some good one on one time with mom!!

Both of the girls are 37 inches tall (90th percentile).  Addi weighed 28lbs 10oz (50th percentile) and Livi weighed 29lbs 9oz (60th percentile).  I find that to be rather interesting for a couple of reasons.  One, Livi feels much heavier when you pick her up.  I would've guessed there would be about a 3 pound difference.  Though I have that thought at every single appointment and she's never even been 1 1/2 pounds bigger!!  The biggest difference between them was actually at their 2 year check and it was only 1#4oz.  Aaaanyway, I expected Livi to weigh much more than Addi, but she didn't.  She never does.  Apparently 15 ounces can be deceiving.  Which is the other thing that's kind of interesting...15 ounces is what separated them at birth!  Awww.

Per Dr K, they're "perfect."  Which became the new word of the day as I was leaving the clinic with both of them.  We walked hand in hand as they each proclaimed "perfect!" all the way to the car.  Which is also rather interesting since they weren't together for this appointment, yet they both picked up on that word and decided to announce it over and over and over!  I guess they really ARE twins!!

Just pictures

I'm feeling lazy, so here are some pictures of the big girls taken just the other morning.  I need to do some more picture taking.  With the sickness that ran through the house, there was a full two weeks where I didn't take a single picture!!

I wonder what she's thinking.

All done with breakfast.

Addi looks scared.  And Livi is simply not interested.

As per usual, they didn't want to cooperate.

Oh heck, I couldn't leave out Elli.  Here are a couple recent pictures of her as well.

 So many toys to choose from!

Such a happy girl.

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!!

Ears and Daycare

So.  Addi was diagnosed with her 4th ear infection in 2 1/2 months over the weekend.  But let's back up a bit.  She had just finished a course of antibiotics on Tuesday (the 22nd) for the last ear infection.  Then come Thursday, I could tell she was kind of "off" when she came home from daycare...really whiny, laying her head down, etc.  Something just wasn't right.  In hopes that she was just overly tired from not sleeping well at daycare, we just let her be.

She went down easily that night.  But by 10:00pm, she was waking every 10 minutes crying.  When we asked her what was wrong, she would point at her right ear and say "right there."  So I took her in to the ER late, late Thursday night (like after 11:00pm) just for a quick peak in her ears.  That's one of the perks of working there!  The docs will often take a look at simple things like that with no charge (shhh, don't tell anyone!).  The doc said that her ear was definitely red but that it could be the previous ear infection still resolving or there could be a new one coming.  He suggested a wait and see approach.  So we kept her on some tylenol to keep her comfortable.

Fast forward to Saturday morning and she was tugging on her ear even more.  Yay for no vomiting though!!  So off to urgent care we went.  The doctor looked in her right ear and said "oh wow, so that's awful."  Her left ear is infected as well, just not quite as badly.  The doctor put a stat referral in to see Dr K and gave us an even stronger antibiotic.  So I called the office this morning and Addi now has an appt on Wednesday to discuss possible tubes. 

On the brighter side, daycare is going extremely well!!  Elli has gone for two weeks now.  From what they tell me, she's doing great.  Eating well, playing well, sleeping/napping as per her usual (3-4 little catnaps).  And the big girls are finally turning a corner as well.  Addi has been good for a little while now but I was still dealing with Livi getting a bit teary during drop off.  However, the last two days, she hasn't shed a tear!  In fact, the last day, I took her to her room, took her coat off and she turned around, waved at me, and said "bye-bye mama." 

When I thought about the future and the girls NOT being sad when I dropped them off, it kind of made *me* a little sad...the fact that they wouldn't miss me.  But now that the day has actually arrived, I was sooooo elated!!  It was great dropping her off and having her be excited that she got to play with her friends.  I'm happy to know that she's content.  So no sadness for me at all!

And I guess the big girls get to go visit Elli on a semi-regular basis.  I think that's wonderful.  Elli is obviously in the infant room while the big girls are in the 2-3 year old room.  But a couple times a day, they'll pull the girls out to go visit with Elli for 30 minutes or so.  I love that the daycare is letting the big girls know that their baby sister is there too and keeping the "family" somewhat connected throughout the day.

When markers attack

I think the girls are somewhat embarrassed that they lost their battles with the markers....they wouldn't even look at the camera.  Livi is showing you her colorful palms and I think Addi is trying to gouge out her eyeballs!!

Say Cheese!!

They grow so fast

I think every parent has heard it before.  "Enjoy it, because they grow so fast."  It's so very true.  Today the big girls are 28 months old.  They're closer to two and a half than they are to two!  And today Elli is 5 months.  I could swear we just brought her home from the hospital.  I still remember the day so well!!  Yes, they're growing fast.

I've included some size comparisons just to drive my point home.  Look how much Elli is catching up!

Elli was just 2 weeks old here (the girls were just shy of 2 years)

Elli at 5 months.

And at 2 days old, leaving the hospital.

To further drive home my point, Elli is officially a sitter!!  What?!?  How in the world?  When in the world?  Craziness I tell ya.  She's not the most proficient sitter just yet, but she's a sitter nevertheless.

Meanwhile, the big girls are trying to teach Elli everything they know.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing!!  I captured one of those moments a few days ago.  I had Elli laying on the floor watching and listening to her music box.  So Addi and Livi plopped right down next to her and started pointing out all the animals!!

And did I mention that we have our third bilateral ear infection in three months?  Oh, I didn't?  Well, that's another post for another day.

Big changes

Sooooooo.....

A week from today, Elli will be starting daycare.  I'm not completely sure how I feel about that.  On one hand, I'm excited because I can stop worrying about lining up sitters or worrying about the weather that would prohibit my mom from getting here to watch her.  On the other hand, she's my baby!!  Of course I worry about whether she'll get the attention she needs and deserves. 

The big girls didn't start daycare until they were two years old because daycares don't tend to take kids less than two on a part time basis.  In fact, the daycare the girls are going to doesn't take infants less than 4 days per week.  Imagine our surprise when we asked them one day if they would take Elli just 2 days a week...and they agreed!!!  I had actually made Nate make the phone call because I "already knew" the answer!  So yeah, we were a little shocked.

In the long run, daycare will be good for her.  Hopefully we'll be able to avoid the problems the big girls had when they started daycare because she'll be acclimated to it really young.  It will just be another part of her routine, so she won't have the same level of separation anxiety that the girls did (they're getting much, much better though!).

I'm reeeaaallly nervous about how I'm going to get 3 kids up, dressed, fed, out the door and in the car by myself.  I know that eventually I'll develop a system, but those first few times are going to be rough.  I've already prepared my coworker for my late arrival!!  Haha.  She's well aware of the fact that I will more than likely not be on time!! 

Random picture day

The girls' 1st time at a waterpark over New Year's weekend.  Addi loved it so much she asked to go back again in the afternoon (which just the two of us did since it's almost in our backyard!)

Elli is working sooo hard at rolling over!

This look just makes me giggle.

A special treat...M&M's and juice!

Awww.  But don't let this fool you.  They can now fight with the best of them!

She's so focused!!