Thursday, May 26, 2011

Colin 2 month

Colin turns 2 months old today. Yesterday we kept Liam out of school and took both of them down to Davis to see Dr. Honeychurch. The weather turned to crap pretty quick too. Can you believe it? It's almost Memorial Day and we've only had 1 day all spring that felt like it was getting warmer. It's basically been in the high 60s all spring and yesterday the temps dropped again and we had torrential rains in our area (it was only slightly sprinkling in Davis though). On an aside: I had to call Dad a couple of times yesterday afternoon to try to wake him up (he sleeps days/works nights) because his town was right in the path of a tornado warning!!! He didn't answer but I think it might havebeen hard to hear the phone when it was hailing so hard. Luckily no tornado touched down in Rio Linda, but . . . there were 4 confirmed tornadoes in the area yesterday. FOUR TORNADOES!!!

Okay, Liam still has a nasty little preschool plague. Jon's got it now and so do I. I'm starting to feel a bit better now though. Luckily Colin is only a little congested. Doctor didn't seem too concerned at all either about their lungs; both boys had clear lungs (as clear as you can get with a cold). Liam got a check-up too since he needed one for preschool. He's 39 1/2" tall which I kind of suspected since he's been walking around with a meter stick from my classroom and is pretty much as tall as it is. He also weighed in at 36 lbs. That puts him at 99th percentile for height and 65th percentile for weight. It also explains why he's still wearing 2T size waist but has to have 4T length. My boy is so hard to shop for. Since his eyes were a little crusty from his cold, the doctor decided to give us a prescription for pink eye medication just in case he should develop conjunctivitis. Gawd I'm not looking forward to putting eye drops in his eyes - please pray he doesn't get pink eye from preschool.

Colin was 23 1/2" and just a smidge over 12 lbs. He's pretty much in the 80th percentile for both. I compared their charts and Colin is consistent with a little shorter and a little chubbier at every mark so far. He had to get his next round of vaccinations and that was sad for poor baby. But I took him out and nursed him in the car right after the appointment and he seemed to be comfortable right away. He also did not get a fever or sleepy from his shots; he stayed on his normal schedule all day. Doctor also took a look at his strawberry hemangioma, which has gotten quite a bit bigger since his 2 weeks appointment but seems to have slowed/stopped growing now. Doctor said that it'll probably go away on its own but that it might take up to 2 years. He also told us to keep a good watch on it because they can get bigger and are very vascular so if it should get scratched, it wouldn't be uncommon for it to bleed for an hour or more. Ugh. He also said there's a treatment for it that uses lasers, but he doesn't want to consider it until Colin's growth has slowed in toddlerhood.

Without further ado, here are pictures of my big little boy!

Look at how strong he is and holding up that head of his! Good job!



Obviously Liam was not having a good time trying to take a picture with his brother. He really does love him, honestly.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

May Day - Man Down

The plague hit us. The preschool plague finally hit us. We made it two full weeks before Liam got sick-sick. He started a cough last Monday. By the time our friend Kara and her 5 month old, Aidric, came to visit us on Wednesday, Jon and I had sore throats; Liam started having coughing fits during the night. I was sure we would be getting them sick too, but as she lives in Washington and we might not see them again until November, we had her visit anyway. Well, she forgot her coat and since I had to go into Roseville to pick up a note from my doctor, I volunteered to bring it to her on Friday. I drove down with Colin and the 4 of us went out for Cheesecake Factory lunch. I also brought her a book that is by one of her favorite authors (she turned both Jon and me on to him when we were up visiting them last June). I tried desperately not to cough on her since I was having awful post-nasal drip attacks.

I got home from Rocklin around 4pm. Liam had only been up from his nap for a little bit and he looked awful. Jon said he had been out of sorts and kinda tantrummy at preschool. When he got home, he proceeded to barely eat any of his lunch and headed straight into bed. He had a fever. A mild fever, but one nonetheless. He vomited while in bed. This is awful for us since he doesn't get sick like that at all. With Tylenol and love, Liam's fever had passed. But just at bedtime, it picked back up again. In fact, I could tell when it happened. He was sitting next to me on the couch watching Olivia and by the time it was over he had slumped onto me and was just staring at the television. The side of his face that was leaning on me was 103.4, but his forehead and other temple were only 101 so another dose of Tylenol he got and went to bed. Saturday, he was cool all day, but obviously out of sorts again. He spent the whole day on the couch when he wasn't napping in his room. And of course, by bedtime, he had another fever. He woke up in the middle of the night from a coughing fit and Jon spent the majority of the early hours sleeping in his room in the recliner because "he was just staring into the dark and breathing so pathetically. It freaked me out."

Sunday . . . cool and active all day. No fever. Officially ready for preschool on Monday. But oh, his nose runs and the snot and coughing are oh so bad. And he tells us everything hurts.
Liam: "Mah finger hurt. Mah knee hurt. Mah elbow hurt. Mah heh (head) hurt. Mah eye hurt. Mah ear hurt (this one makes me concerned because I don't want this cold to turn into an ear infection). Mah toe hurt."
Me: "Does your brain hurt?"
L: "Mah bain hurt."
Me: "Do your pants hurt?"
L: "Yeah, mah pants hurt."
Me: "Does your shoe hurt?"
L: "Yeah, shoo hurt."
You can see where this goes. I continued to ask him more and more inanimate objects that have nothing to do with him. Apparently everything hurts.

He was up at 6:30(OMG!!!) for Monday morning. He went to school and had a great day. He fought going down for a nap, but I slept with him and did okay until I woke him up with my coughing. Then he got into such a coughing fit that he vomited again. It was mostly mucus (you're so lucky you get to hear all this). End of nap.

Yesterday, up at 6:00am (OMFG!!!) for the day. But at least he was eating his cereal (he was fighting eating breakfast at home last week). He had a great day and was "so HAPPY!" according to his teachers. Nap was easy. He was being pleasant, but when I got out of the kitchen and took a good look at my child's pallid face with faint shadows growing under his eyes, I sent him in. He didn't argue or fight me. A definite sign he still feels awful. And by 6:30 in the evening, he grabbed his blankie and sang a made up song with "green ghost" as the only words (that's his blankie's name). He disappeared. I was nursing Colin so I figured he was just quietly reading when he didn't come back out. Nope. When I checked he was awake, but laying in his bed, facing the wall. When he heard me he looked me square in the eye and said "Mommy, I so sick. I so tired."

Breaks your heart :(

Today's been another day of miserable coughing and running nose. He and I slept at naptime again until, again, I woke him up with my own coughing fits. He's probably gonna have to have eye drops for pink eye (more on that in the next post) thanks to his well-child check-up today. Not looking forward to dosing my child with eye drops. I am already have horrid memories of my own parents having to do the same to me.

I'm going to drop off the infant in his daddy's arms and take the little man to the shower. I think we both need to get rid of these plague germs we have all over us (seriously . . . I'm sure you've seen a snotty toddler so you know how gross his face and arms and hands are right now).

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

coo coo cachoo

Just jotting down a quick note to say that Colin gave us his first real, true coos Monday night/yesterday morning. He's quite a chatty little guy in the morning (just like his brother). I was also able to get him to smile for the camera too. So of course, here are pictures.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Mothers Day & school

Yesterday was my 3rd Mothers Day and my first being a mother of TWO!!! It was a pretty low-key affair. We basically stayed indoors all day. Jon made all the meals and got me a card. We watched Toy Story 3 and The Princess & the Frog to help keep Liam placated and entertained. Dinner was steaks, baked potato, and roasted asparagus. I will probably go get a pedicure or a hair cut or something as a mommy gift to myself.

On Saturday, I took Colin all the way down to Roseville very very early in the morning because I had to do my glucose tolerance test to see if my diabetes has gone away. I had to fast for 8-10 hours overnight and I just barely passed the fasting glucose. I still don't know what my 2-hour result is. Colin and I are also participating in a study about gestational diabetes/diabetes. So I had all my measurements taken; height, weight, waist, BMI. And then Colin got measured (basically the same thing). He's only 6 weeks and he's now 11lbs and 22.4". Wow! Then afterward, I took my mom and grandmother out for lunch at Spaghetti Factory. Granny kept sneaking glances at Colin about every 3 minutes. When we went back to Granny's house, I fixed her email and her Facebook page for her. She kept falling asleep in the easy chair and talking in her sleep. It was very funny.

I got some pics uploaded from Liam's milkshake adventure if you want to go back and view them. I have to admit, they are frickin' ADORABLE (and I'm not just saying that because he's my sweet little man).

And now, our big milestone . . . Liam went off to preschool this morning. The school is on the opposite corner of our block. He's as big as the 4y/o kids but of course he's 32m. He'll be going from 7:30-12:30 every weekday and we plan to keep it up over the summer. He didn't want to wake up this morning, but he did eat his breakfast and get dressed with ease. We walked him there and he immediately ran into the preschool room and began playing with the toy cars. He couldn't have cared less if we were there; he only cried when Jon tried to get a hug goodbye because he didn't want to stop playing. I think it's gonna be so great for him. I'm really excited.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

thank you

Even if I had to ask, even if the job was half-assed, I'll still (and do) say thank you.

Can't I get a "thank you" too?
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a school milestone, a food milestone

We have hit a big milestone around here. Very soon, Liam will start attending daycare/preschool. Little Kids' Country is literally around the block from our place (the opposite corner). I wanted to go see the place myself, although Jon had already given his approval and I had read all the paperwork. So we walked over with the boys right around noon after Liam had some lunch.

It was a really nice place and the director and all the teachers seemed great. We got to see the preschool and infant rooms as well as the school-age room (which wasn't in use obviously because it was a school day). The kids all met Liam with interest and he fell right in to playing with them as they were getting ready to take their naps.

We will probably put him into the part-time program which means he can attend in the mornings from 7-12 everyday. He'll get snack, lunch, and lots of play time plus curriculum time around 10am. I think he'll enjoy it a lot. He's actually already ahead of several of the kids as he knows all his alphabet in capital letters (and many lower-case) and all his colors. I also hope this will really help him with his language development as he gets rather incoherent, mumbly, and unintelligible after lunch.

I also like this idea as it will give him a good starting point to going full days after the summer (hopefully, Jon will have a job by then) even if it's only for a couple days a week. And I will get to focus on Colin a bit more; I'll enjoy the time I have with my little monster all the better when he's home. And hopefully it might give Jon the motivation to clean things since he won't be watching after Liam all the day.

On our way home from my postpartum appointment yesterday, we stopped at Mc Donald's since Colin needed to breastfeed and I was really craving a milkshake. Jon got Liam his own chocolate shake (his very first). It was huge compared to him and heaven help us, he ate the whole thing without getting a brain-freeze or a tummy ache. And honestly, he was very polite and sweet about the whole thing (a wonderful change compared to the previous night when he was a downright turd to me). He even had his bath and went to bed calmly and lovingly. I may have to ply my child with ice cream more often.


Aww how big they get so fast.

Monday, May 2, 2011

a bright side

There was a bright side to today's rough edges...

Colin gave me his first intentional smile today. Awwww.

:)

long day - ugh

Didn't sleep well last night and I'll admit it's because I'd had too much wine to drink. When Colin woke up to breastfeed at 1:30, Ii probably would have slept right through it if Jon hadn't gotten him diapered and handed him over to my half conscious body.

Woke up, but could not keep my eyes open this morning even after 2 cups of coffee.

Liam was already getting whiny by noon even though he was a charming cherub when he first woke up. Colin was whimpering or crying every 1/2 hour. I was a little grateful to get to run off to the dentist, but let's face it, I went to the dentist; never will you hear anyone remark "I had the grandest time getting my teeth cleaned! Tra-la!" And just my luck, I had a cavity. Luckily, I'll be able to wait until January to have it filled when my benefits go to 100%.

By the time I got home, the boys (all 3 of them) were falling apart. Jon had had a devil of a time giving the whiny 2 y/o quality time and still meeting the needs of the infant. He handed them both over to me and started playing a game on his phone. Apparently there had been one tantrum that lasted 45 min. until Liam calmed down.

Dinner turned into another 30 minutes of screaming when I admonished him for trying to stick beef fat onto the wheels of a Hotwheels car. We would not even have sent him to his room except that he purposefully dumped his plated on the floor. I let Jon escape to walk the birth announcements to the post office. Liam was basically pretty good for awhile. He even tried to help me sweep and mop the entryway (keeping up with my FLYlady chores - wish I could say the same for Hubster). Then I gave him a bath. But then he devolved again.

He tried to throw a full out, head bashing tantrum in the bathroom. I simply can't allow that as the bathroom is such an easy place to get hurt (although also easy to mop up blood if he really continues to insist on bashing his brains against the ground). I tried a naughty-chair time out for the first time; we've been watching a lot of supernanny while I've been on maternity leave. It only took 5x to reinforce that he would stay on the chair for 2 min. Then he even said he was sorry and told me he loved me. And then he went into an uncontroleable screaming/sobbing fit for 20min. Jon came in, said goodnight and got "goodnight" and "i fuff u daddy." I just got more crying and whining. I couldn't read to him because he was so loud. He refused to rock. I finally got to the verge of tears and just shut the door. He railed on for another 25, but at least he never came out of his room.

Colin was sobbing when I came out. He needed to be fed. I'm so so done now. Liam's sleeping but now Colin is screaming (I apparently didn't have enough milk tonight).
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