One of those days

My kids had one of those days yesterday. That alone isn't that notable, but they chose yesterday to both have a bad day. At the same time. At the same time as it was pouring down rain. It started with Meg's ear follow up appointment. I was surprised to hear that her latest ear infection didn't clear up with the Suprax as expected. Next up, Augmentin. She had that last about six months ago (ages in the life of a 16 month old) and it caused some diarrhea. But that could have been due to something she ate or the antibiotics. I guess we'll see. The concern now is that this may be speeding up the timetable on ear tubes.

In any event, after the visit, we dropped off the prescription at the CVS drive-through (we're now good friends with the folks there). Then I needed to go to Target for a few things. There, they both proceeded to whine and wiggle through the entire store. If one wasn't crying, the other was and then they both were. Meg is now of an age (and temperament) that when she doesn't want something, she can really arch her back and make it difficult to carry her. So I couldn't contain her in the cart or control her on her feet. And Andy was just crybabying the whole way. Ugh.

Then we needed to head into the library to return DVDs from our trip and pick up a new one. This whole exercise usually takes five minutes, but Andy was still whining about everything (including all the "strangers" in the library and Meg was running away from me and/or climbing on chairs. It got so bad I had one librarian helping Andy who was crying because I had to run to grab Meg and he was crying that I had left. Then as we checked out, Meg ran off and I had a nice lady behind me with three kids of her own holding her while I checked out and Andy cried about not wanting to check out at a certain station. Big stuff.

We went home for a nap (hers at least) then we trekked into town to see an old high school friend who was visiting with her two kids and staying in Dupont Circle. In the afternoon, they were better, but I did discover upon returning that when Andy was having "quiet time," what he did was write all over his pillows with markers. Good times. I had several glasses of wine last night.

And then? Both kids slept until 8 this morning, which is unheard of. Then they were then precious angels most of the day, playing, smiling, eating properly. Meg took a power nap in the afternoon and I even got a nap in (which always makes me in a better mood.) What a difference a day makes sometimes.

She walks!

Well, not walk exactly, but she took two or three steps in a row! Over and over again! She was so excited for the cheering and it was great because Bjorn was here as was his mom to witness it. A nice cap to a nice, but chilly, Easter.

In preparation for the holiday, Meg came down with her XVXI cold of the season last week. She had the typical runny nose and cough, but this time she had a strange new symptom -- red cheeks that she wanted to scratch along with watery eyes. No fever, which pointed to allergies, but with a holiday weekend, it made sense to get into the ped just in case.

I was surprised to hear she had a beginning right ear infection. I was also surprised to hear that the mucus under her cheeks can occasionally cause her face to burn/itch, which is why she was scratching. I know, strange. She's on antibiotics for the ear infections and antihistamine for the itching.

I saw Dr. Murphy, the other doctor in the practice, instead this time and was asking about ear tubes as if it was a fait accompli. He said not to rush into it, as the season is just about over and hopefully by the fall her immune system is that much better. I explained that Andy didn't get tubes until he was nearly three.

"Does he have allergies?"
"Um, I don't know."
Looking at him. "Actually, it looks like he might. Look at his nose. And the bags under his eyes. Does he always look like that?"
"Well, the black eye is from falling off a chair."

He explained that the "shiner" is a classic look among kids with allergies, who often have ear problems because their ears are "sticky." He recommended an allergy work-up, which we're doing next Friday. Supposedly it doesn't involve needles, just a skin reaction test that takes about 20 minutes. I already have to take Meg back to get her ear follow-up. The nice thing about my Fridays off is I almost always get to spend them at a pediatrician.

Ear infections part MXCII

I took Andy in for his post-ear infection check. Even Meg's sinus infection, i.e. goopy eye problem, was looking better so I mostly had a couple of questions about nose bleeds, adding dairy back in, and teething. I was not expecting to hear that both kids have ear infections. Apparently they're not super red and nasty (meaning really painful) but they are definitely not well and need some more medicine to clear them up. Apparently Andy's ear infection just never really cleared and Meg's sinus infection just worked its way over to the ears. The prescription was Suprax (at the bargain price of $50 per). Poor guys.

I explained that Meg was up somewhat inconsolable for about an hour or so the other night. Dr. Staats predicted that was more likely due to teething than her ears and encouraged good use of Motrin and Tylenol. While all four molars are through the gums, she predicts it will be several more weeks before they are all done moving.

I asked about tubes again for Andy. She predicted we'd get through March, the last month of cold and flu season and likely not have problems again. But if this infection refuses to clear up, then we'll talk about it again. She said it's pretty common to have to do them again, even at this age, and now that he's four, they'd likely take the adenoids out as well. I explained our theory of getting the tubes for Meg in late summer in time for the season. She thought that made a lot of sense, unless of course, the latest infection refuses to die. So now we're on antibiotics for another couple of weeks and seeing where this takes us.

So it as 70 last weekend only to snow this morning. March is turning out to be pretty wacky.

Ears

We had appointment for both kids with the pediatriac ear, nose and throat doctor today. It seemed like a good idea to have Andy with the nurse practitioner at 9:40 followed by an appointment with the physician at 10:00, but it was a long-ish morning in their office.

Note to doctors everywhere -- you have good toys in the waiting rooms. Would it kill you to put some of those in the waiting rooms, too? Not a sermon, just a thought.

Andy went first. One tube was out and lodged in some ear wax (doesn't that sound disgusting). The other was also out, but still touching the ear drum. She took long tweezers, laid him out and pulled the left one out. The right one is no longer functional, but she said it would H-U-R-T to take it out so we've got an appointment in May to come take another look unless it falls out between now and then.

Meg then moved on to meet with the doctor. Based on her SIX ear infections in the past six months and her family history, my girl is a candidate for the surgery. We could schedule it today and have it done in March sometime. While I'm sold on tubes, the question now is when. They clearly changed Andy's life for the better, but she is just so young that I hesitate. Plus, we're coming on spring/summer when things are generally pretty clear up until the next fall and winter. So we could wait until the summer to get it done, she'd be 18 months then and since the tubes last a year, that would put her at 2 1/2 after that and hopefully ready to outgrow the problem (although Andy did get his first set at nearly 3).

All that said, if we could do the surgery now (well, March) and go ahead and knock it out, wouldn't that be all the better? Then if she does need another set after that, well, we'll just cross that bridge when we get there?

I think I need to sleep on it.

Oy, part 3

So guess who was up last night throwing up? That would be Andy! Poor guy. He came to my bed about 11, which is weird, but there are lots of weird things going on this week. He snuggled for a minute, then coughed, cried and when I turned on the light, I saw that he'd thrown up. In my bed. Turns out he'd also thrown up in his bed earlier. He did that for about half an hour while we changed the sheets and then woke up about 3:45 and 8:30 for repeat performances. Bjorn was quite the champ taking care of him and everything. Meg, believe it or not, had a pretty good night starting about 10:30 and woke up looking more like herself. Go figure.

I called Meg's babysitter to see if she could go over there today to give me a break to deal with Andy. She agreed so at least I had a chance to catch up on rest, laundry and e-mail for a bit. Dang, it's been a long couple of weeks! I hope all these bugs stay with 2008.

Oh, and to update on Meg. We spent two hours at the doctor's office yesterday. The first hour was waiting (groan) and the second they ran a bunch of tests. She has a double ear infection so the Omnicef wasn't doing its job so now she's on another antibiotic and a prescription antihistamine that will help dry her out and help her sleep. The doctor said I might go ahead and make the ENT appointment just to get a referral. She said Meg is younger than she normally likes to refer and hasn't exhausted everything else yet, BUT with Andy's family history, we're likely headed there anyway so why not go ahead and make that an option. The surgery makes me nervous, mostly the anesthesia, but the thought of preventing all this recent discomfort makes it all worth it.

Oy

So we returned and we were all excited to relax and sleep in our own beds...only for little miss Margaret to be up all Friday night, coughing so hard she would throw up. Poor chicken only slept about two hours at a time. Unfortunately, she only wanted me so Bjorn couldn't even really help. She and I were both exhausted and cranky come Saturday morning.

A trip to the pediatrician in the morning, along with most of the rest of Northern Virginia, diagnosed an ear infection so now she's on 3 ml of Omnicef twice a day as well as 3 ml of Motrin and Tylenol for the pain and 1 1/2 ml of Benadryl on occasion to help with the drainage. The humidifier is cranked at full blast and, thank heavens, she had decent nights Saturday and Sunday nights. I did even promise her a pony if she slept through the night Saturday I was so cranky and exhausted. She made it so now I suppose I need to look into ponies.

So far, the antibiotics seem to be working on her ears, but I have a feeling ear tubes are in our future. Fortunately, we've done it once so the whole process is not as scary.

Two steps forward, one step back

First, the good news. Andy is all better. His mouth was sore through Saturday so he stopped talking on purpose. I was surprised to realize just how much he talks when he wasn't doing it anymore. It was nice while it lasted. He didn't really want to eat much so we got him into yogurt "smoothies" which are yogurt milked with milk, stirred and then poured into a sippy cup with a straw. It's now Tuesday and he's gone through probably 10 things yogurts. He thinks it's like a milkshake with the bonus that it's easy to make and good for him.

Now the bad news. Meg is sick. I know, you all knew that was coming. She started off with a little cough yesterday and woke up this morning with a little fever, runny nose and glassy eyes. I called the doctor's office to ask if they were worried about strep. They said most likely not, but it wasn't unheard of so bring her in just in case. Good news is it's not strep. Bad news is it's an ear infection. She's now on antibiotics (Omnicef) for 10 days to clear that up. Poor baby.

With this being her second ear infection in two months during the SUMMER, I'm a little worried that we may be headed for ear tubes this fall/winter. Dr. Staats said not to worry about that just yet as it could be just a string of bad luck, but with Andy's history of recurrent ear infections it may be in our future. Good thing we've been through it once so I'm not as freaked out as I was, but I'd still like to avoid it if we can. Sigh.

And now for your moment of Zen, that's me trying to ride Andy's bike.

Much better

Thanks for your well wishes. Andy seems much better. He took a long nap Monday afternoon (so long I even kept checking in to make sure he hadn't died from the anesthesia. What? What's so weird about that?) Since then, he's been chipper and quite darling. Well, he's still 2 11/12 so he has his moments, but he seems to feel pretty good.

The nurse instructed us (well, me, Bjorn doesn't do baths in our house at the moment although that might have to change in a couple of months) to put cotton in his ears just until he gets the all clear in a couple of weeks that the ears have healed properly. Unfortunately, I can't seem to master getting a little cotton ball into his ear without it promptly falling out once he hits the bath water. He is also supposed to be getting antibiotic ear drops for the next couple of weeks. The instructions say five drops in each ear twice a day, but Andy is dead-set against them so it's more like two drops in each ear, each day. Oh well.

As you can see from the picture, he seems to be feeling pretty good. Here he managed to take the furnace air filters, carry them upstairs and proceed to "make a train." I'm not sure what he was envisioning exactly, but it's clear he has an imagination. He loved playing with those filters so much that I finally had to remove them under the cover of night to get them out of view. I love how strange and active his mind is right now.

Surgery

Today was Andy's surgery for his ear tubes. I was nervous, but it all went quite smoothly. In fact, the folks at the Fairfax Surgical Center were exceptionally throughout and efficient. Quite an operation.

7:00 a.m. - Leave the house for Fairfax City.

7:15 a.m. - Walk in the doors for an 8:30 a.m. surgery, slightly off the 1.5 hours they recommend.

7:20 a.m. - Check in and go upstairs to another waiting room.

7:25 a.m. - Consult with the anesthesiologist who explains that it will be a general anesthesia and it shouldn't be a big deal. BUT he warns that about one in a thousand do have a reaction so they have breathing tubes and other gear on hand just in case.

7:30 a.m. - We go back into an area like an emergency room with curtained rooms to sign papers and change Andy into a gown while they check his temperature and blood pressure. Then they give him a little Tylenol in advance of the surgery to take any edge off. The procedure is technical painless, but apparently all the ear popping afterwards can be uncomfortable. Bjorn is also given a gown to wear over his clothes since he will be the one holding Andy while they give him the anesthesia.

7:45 a.m. - I'm sent to the waiting room, Bjorn and Andy head for semi-sterile toy room while they wait for anesthesia and talk to Dr. McBride about the surgery.

8:00 a.m. - Andy is given the anesthesia mask. After three deep breaths, he passes out. Bjorn is sent to Consultant Room 2 in the waiting room where we wait together.

8:15 a.m. - Dr. McBride comes to talk to us. Andy did great. The tubes are in place and the fluid that was in his ears have been drained. He's free to take baths and swim in the pool, but he needs to keep his ears plugged if he swims in less sterile water, like in a creek, lake or ocean. After this, he should hear much better. Bjorn and I look at each other wondering how much smarter he'll be now that he can hear. We are due to see the doctor again on December 26 to see how everything is going. In the meantime, he is to finish his Suprex antibiotics and also get prescription ear drops to use for the next couple of weeks to make sure the tubes stay open.

8:25 a.m. - We're taken to the recovery room where Andy is just starting to sit up. He's transferred to my lap in a lazy chair where he groggily cries for his dog and his binky. The nurse gives him a little apple juice and he and I cuddle while watching Clifford the Big Red Dog (a terrible show that Andy doesn't mind today.) The nurse explains again that he might be groggy for a bit, but that by the afternoon he should be himself again.

8:45 a.m. - Get him dressed again.

8:50 a.m. - We're given the all clear and walked to the elevator, which takes us to a door to the parking lot that is different than the one we came in. Andy is still groggy and a little whiny.

9:00 a.m. - Swing through the Dunkin' Donuts drive through to get Andy a chocolate donut with sprinkles and much needed coffee for the grown ups. As Andy eats his donut, he starts to perk up like his old self. Whenever he burps though (and apparently that is several times this morning), he complains that his ears hurt. This must be the popping they were talking about.

9:15 a.m. - Arrive back at home. We put Andy in our bed to cuddle up with his dogs and watch some Little Einsteins (or "Lil Eintines" as his calls them). He refuses to take his hat off, as you can see. I give him the antibiotics and some more apple juice.

10:30 a.m. - He's now wide awake and hyper although he alternates between hyper and saying he's not a little tired, but "big tired." Bjorn administers the ear drops, which Andy says tickle and are cold.

11:30 a.m. - We try to put him down for a nap and count our blessings that this all went so smoothly. Now if only I can arrange for labor and delivery to be this quick and mostly pain free.

'Tis the Season

Andy is old enough now to understand the advent calendar. Well, sort of. He's old enough to understand counting numbers and the idea of opening the little windows every day (and eat the chocolate). He's not quite old enough to get the concept of what he's counting down toward per se, but it's still fun each day to see him open his window. It's pretty darn cute.

Saturday we had Andy's sibling class at Virginia Hospital Center. It would have been better had we arrived on time and/or not spent 10 minutes trying to locate the room for the class considering it only lasted about an hour. But Andy did instructions on how to gently hold a new baby (using a doll) and sing it a lullaby. We also took him on a tour of the labor and delivery and post-partum floor. We'll need to know where that is soon enough.

We also saw the nursery. The lovely nurse teaching the class warned that we might not see any babies in the nursery since they "really encourage rooming in," but there must have been at least 10 tiny babies in there. Intellectually, I know how small they start out, but it was a good (and scary) reminder to actually see hours old babies. I think it's finally hitting me that we're going to have a tiny baby sometime next month. Wow.

Andy has been a darling most of the weekend, including getting his hair cut (quite short) this morning. In all this cuteness though, I know his ear surgery is tomorrow. I'm trying not to worry about it, but it sort of lingers in the back of my mind. We had the pre-op appointment on Friday with his pediatrician who is always exceptionally nice. She gave me some basic advice, like how it's hard for mothers to watch the anesthesia take effect since the kids often look like they're dying even though they're not (funny, the surgical nurse who called to give me last minute instructions said the same thing). The surgery is tomorrow morning. I'll post something when I get a chance letting everyone know how he's doing.

More antibiotics

Andy goes in for his ear tube surgery a week from tomorrow. That didn't stop him from developing yet another sinus infection (as identified by the prodigious amounts of eye goo he had this morning) and reinforcing that this in indeed the right thing to do to keep him healthy and happy. Once we saw the goo, I put in a call to the pediatrician's office who called in a prescription for Suprex (at a cool $50). Hopefully that will clear him up until the surgery when the new found ear drainage should help prevent every cold from turning into something more severe. In this case, I think this is the same infections he's had for weeks that we just can't seem to get rid of.

As he's on his antibiotics, I am on amoxicillin for the cough I've had for weeks now. The doctor said it sounded like bronchitis, but she's an OB and not necessarily an expert at diagnosing regular stuff like this. I haven't noticed a difference since I started taking the medicine on Friday, unfortunately. It could be that like Andy, I can't seem to shake illnesses these days either. Apparently pregnancy weakens my immune system so that my body won't reject the fetus as a foreign substance. Yet another side effect I'm having these days. I'll admit it's been tough, being big and pregnant (read hormonal and cranky) is trying enough without adding on all the infections that make it harder to get through the day and sleep at night. The most irritating thing about this most recent illness is my left ear is totally stopped up so I have difficulty hearing as well as telling if I'm talking too loud. At least we're coming into the home stretch -- only eight more weeks to go to my due date. And that means just five weeks until I'm 37 weeks and considered full-term. Yay! (And shit! There is a lot to do between now and then, including Christmas.)

Meanwhile, I'm on Bjorn's computer tonight and found this old picture of Andy. I think it's from summer 2006. I love how round and babyish his features are. And I laugh to think I thought he was ready back then for finger painting. If I recall, he really only succeeded in getting his hands covered in paint and never really got the point of drawing on the paper and making a mess everywhere.

The cool and not so cool

We got the word at the pediatrician's office today - Andy's long-running ear infection is refusing to clear up after three rounds of antibiotics. Based on his ears' performance refusing to clear up last spring when colds were less common and now that we're going into cold and flu season, she says it's time to get the surgery to put in ear tubes. Everyone I've talked to whose child has them raves that it has made all the difference in both their kids' temperament improving because their ears don't hurt and then the kids avoiding being sick going forward, but it's still something I was hoping to avoid. Rats.

I called the surgeon and we're booked for December 10. It sounds like a quick procedure. They said he's put under a general anesthetic delivered through a mask. Then we leave the room and about 10 minutes later, we're brought back into the recovery room where he wakes up minutes later. Our pediatrician said some kids are able to take a nap and go to daycare in the afternoon, but I don't think we'll test that. Now I've got to figure out some of the follow up stuff, like do I have to plug his ears for bath time and swimming? He refuses to put his head under water in the bath or pool at the moment (as you can see, he prefers "cooking" instead), but I imagine that won't last forever.

Meanwhile, my earlier post on men refusing to give up a seat to a pregnant lady at the OB's office got me a shout out over on DC Blogs. I feel so famous. Thanks to Chris for telling me about it.

Antibiotics here we come

It's official - the never-ending ear infection is back. We went to the doctor's today who confirmed that he still has an ear infection and that's probably building up infection in his sinuses, causing the eye goop. Way better than pink eye, but it does mean we're back on this treadmill again. When asked about tubes, she said that the infection may be starting in the nose and sinuses, but it can't drain through the ears properly which is why he's still sick. The plan is to try another round of antibiotics (this time amoxicillan/Augmentin) and see if we can't clear it up without surgery. But she did say that this kind of perpetual infection this early in the cold and flu season doesn't look good. Sigh. One more thing to worry about between now and the end of January.

The only good news is that apparently his ears are so red, she said they most certainly hurt. And that's good because it means my kid is not the demon he has been portraying lately, he's just uncomfortable and I can help alleviate that.

Meanwhile, check the porn shot I posted. He really wanted to wear his boots the other day as I had him undressed for his bath. He looked so funny clomping around that I took a couple of pictures. I found I actually had to delete one that showed his boy parts because it just looked so, so wrong somehow -- naked except for yellow rain boots and posing. So I made him put Jeff on his lap to at least cover the money shot. I still think this will be properly humiliating when he gets older. I see rehearsal dinner slide show written all over this one.