Five-year check-up

Andy had his five-year check-up today. I'd been dreading it because I had heard from one of the nurses there would be FIVE shots so he could be ready for kindergarten. I had decided to only really mention he might be getting a shot in passing so it wasn't a total surprise, but I didn't make it painfully obvious yet either. So I was relieved to hear there would only be three shots. Andy had no idea what could have been, but I felt better.

He got a blood test (cholesterol is a good 119). He also had his eyes and ears checked for seeing and hearing. He's not color blind nor lacking depth perception, which is good, but he does seem to be slightly nearsighted so she recommended I get him to an optometrist. She didn't think his prescription would be much and might not even really have to wear glasses at this age, but she felt it warranted taking him to get him for a real test. I can see why, I think they used the same equipment at Bradfield in 1977. His hearing test was also good, which was nice since it turns out he has a mild ear infection.

He weighed in at 40 pounds even and 42 inches making and all around a perfectly healthy boy. He cried when he had to get his finger pricked (I can't say I blame him) and then really cried when he got three shots, two on the left and one on the right. All in all, I thought he was pretty strong about the whole thing. He didn't try to run or hide, he knew what was coming and took it. Pretty big stuff really. Bjorn had gotten him a Pez dispenser so we put the candy in it in between shots. They also gave him a goody bag for being such a big boy. I was very proud.

I brought Meggy too, despite my not wanting to have her running around while he had a two hour appointment, because I had to get her sinus infection looked at before the snowpocalpse 2.0 hit. Indeed her sinus infection is not better and has spread to an ear infection. Fortunately, we could get some antibiotics (Suprax for both) before getting 20 to 30 inches of snow over three days.

Classic

Andy was playing with one of his old toys, a dog that when you touch it, talks back and sings song.

"Ding-a-ling. I see you," says the bear."
"No you don't," says Andy.

Where did this kid get his sarcasm?

Both kids are (fingers crossed) doing better on the new antibiotic. Meg's sinus infection (i.e. goopy eyes) appears better as does her super thick and chunky runny nose. What's left now is a dry cough. It's unclear if that's part of the sinus infection working its way through or something else new and fun.

Andy was a total pill yesterday morning. We met the famous Lizzie G. at the Gap Outlet in Old Town where he proceeded to whine and complain for the entire 1 1/2 hours we were together, even with mint chocolate chip ice cream. He then came home and took a four hour nap so I suppose the kid wasn't quite right after all.

We had a dinner to celebrate Mark being in town where Bjorn made his local favorite sausage risotto for everyone. It was nice to all be together. What's funny is Jennifer is now hinting that her month stay with us may turn into a longer stay and Mark is saying he might be home for the summer. It would be sort of fun having everyone all together although I might have to invest in bunk beds or something for the big kids to share a room. I don't think I could stand one of them sleeping on the couch in the basement as it would make that room off limits until noon most mornings and a mess if we had guests over. The logistics are easy enough though.

I'm in the middle of the fourth Twilight book. Sure, it's crap, but at this point, it's familiar crap. I just wish Bella wasn't such a victim. I haven't quite figured out why everyone in the book loves her so much as it's not like she's out sewing scarves for the homeless or anything. And Jacob -- dang, he seems a whole lot more fun than Edward. Am I alone here?

Diagnosis

I stayed home yesterday and got both kids to the doctor yesterday. Meg's vomitus interuptus from the evening before had subsided, but she woke up with a goopy eyes. Andy woke up Wednesday morning with a fever of 103. I forget that Wednesdays only one doctor is working so we couldn't get in until noon. Fortunately, after sleeping from 6:00 p.m. to 5:45 a.m., Meg was tired and took a good morning nap.

Anyhoo, the diagnosis -- ear infection for him and sinus infection for her. Prescription -- omnicef for both. Dr. Murphy said that the vomiting was due to the congestion dripping into her tummy and irritating her stomach. He recommended staying away from dairy for a few days since it can lead to increased mucus and also irritate the stomach. It's strange to stay away from milk products. I forget how much dairy she eats, from cheese to yogurt to milk.

With the kids being sick and thus turning my world upside down, I haven't had a chance to talk about how great it was having my mom here last week. A running joke with my sister has been that she taught Megan (as a joke) to say:

"Megan, what does grandmother like?"
"Grandmother loves malt liquor!"

It worked so great that we taught Andy to do that as well with phenomenal results. Jennifer loves asking Andy in front of friends what grandmother likes. When Mom was visiting, we braved going out to dinner with two little kids. Andy wanted hummus, which wasn't on the menu so he asked Mom to read him the menu to see if it was on there. She was kindly complying when he turned to her out of nowhere:

"Grandmother, is malt liquor your favorite?"

We nearly fell out of our chairs. Then we called Elizabeth.

Strep and the dentist

Andy started complaining Monday afternoon that his teeth hurt. I couldn't quite figure out what was wrong, but I knew that I had been meaning to take him to the dentist and so I was immediately worried that he had a cavity of some sort, naturally because I had been slack about brushing and the dental visit. He had a rough night of sleep Monday night. Bjorn remember that Andy fell on his way back from the pool Sunday and hit his knees and bonked his head so we figured he must have somehow knocked his teeth in the event.

I had actually scheduled a dental visit for October with a family dentist someone recommended in the neighborhood. I called yesterday morning and explained what we thought was going on and could we please come by to make sure he didn't have some tooth trauma. They recommended that I take him to a pediatric dentist because they don't normally see kids until age 5. I am pretty sure he was still 3 1/2 when I made the appointment two weeks ago so it was a little random that they didn't want to see him. She did give me the names of some nice pediatric dentists. I then went back to a recommendation from a friend for a pediatric dentist in Tyson's. Not ideal location-wise, but he came highly recommended and best of all, they could squeeze me in to make sure his teeth weren't knocked out or something.

The visit to the dentist was actually fairly pleasant for both of us. They obviously cater to kids so there were lots of toys and the hygienists were uber nice to Andy and engaging. They took and X-ray and good news, the teeth and mouth are fine. We could even see his permanent teeth on X-ray even though he won't get those until probably age 6. The dentist gave me information on what to do in future tooth trauma, pronounced him fine and sent us on our way with a nice lecture on getting rid of the binky and ways to do it.

Figuring all was well, I took him back to school and went back to work. Andy and I made a plan that after school, we would go home, get his binkies, throw them away and in return, he'd get a big boy bike. I wasn't ready to get him a bike necessarily since he really has just figured out the tricycle he's had for two years, but it was the one thing he really wanted and seemed motivated enough by it to give up those precious binkies. So we went to Target and picked out a lovely $36 12 inch bike with training wheels and a helmet (he's in a youth size helmet since his head is so big). We took it home and Bjorn put it together for us.

Andy was incredibly ornery and kept complaining about his mouth, but I figured he was tired from a rough night of sleep. The doctor said that he might complain about his teeth for a few days and to keep him on a soft diet for a week. I thought a good night's sleep would solve things. I was wrong.

We put him to bed sans binky and after about an hour in bed, he started to cry. He was asleep, but it was clear that he was in some kind of pain. It was pretty awful because he just couldn't be consoled. He just kept saying his mouth hurt and crying. After a few hours of this, Bjorn finally deduced that it was his THROAT that hurt, not his mouth/teeth even though that's what he was saying. Around 12:30, I called the pediatrician's office because he was just miserable and inconsolable. Dr. Murphy said to give him two teaspoons of Motrin and a teaspoon of Benadryl and see him at 9 a.m.

Andy and I ended up sleeping on the twin bed in Mark's room where he woke up about every 30 minutes to an hour, with a three hour stretch from about 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. It was pretty rough, mostly on him, but us, too (Meg, sweet angel baby, slept through the whole thing). You can bet that about an hour in I was really regretting throwing out those binkies.

Bjorn took him to the doctor's this morning and found out he has strep throat. The only thing we can think of is that the sinus pressure may have actually made his teeth and mouth hurt. Poor guy. Bjorn said the throat culture part was pretty terrible as Bjorn had to hold him down to scrape the back of his throat. They also tested him for mono, which is going around. He's now on antibiotics for 10 days and the prognosis is he should start to feel better immediately. Fingers crossed he knocks this out and no one else gets it. It is really hard to watch him be so uncomfortable and no know how to fix it. I can't quite believe the dentist didn't see the sore throat unless it wasn't red yet.

So, yesterday was a big day -- we tossed the binky, got a bike, visited the dentist and got strep throat. Happy August 19 everyone!

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.

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.

Strange rash equals ear infection?

Andy has had a strange rash-like mark on his hip for the past week. I noticed is last Sunday night, meaning it definitely happened on my watch and not at school or something else. It was just a small mark, about the size of a quarter if you squished it a bit so that it was narrower in the middle and wider on the sides. I kept an eye on it and it didn't seem to change colors, but it also didn't seem to be getting bigger or smaller. It also didn't seem to bother him. It didn't hurt when I touched it or seem to itch. It was just, well, there. Bjorn finally noticed it Sunday and I noticed that it seemed a little whiter in the middle so I decided a trip to the doctor was in order. I got an appointment for yesterday afternoon. The only downside was the female doctor I really like isn't in this week. Oh well.

The doctor bothers me because he doesn't call me by name (or Andy by name), he just calls me Mom and usually doesn't look me in the eye or tell me what he's doing. He seems good at what he does medically, but he doesn't give me the impression of listening to me the way she does. After an exam, where Andy for the first time ever didn't mind the ear thermometer or the ear scope thingee, it turns out he has another ear infection and a sore throat. Apparently the rash can be related to the other illness. Who knew? The news was even more surprising since Andy has been an angel the past few days. He didn't seem to feel bad, he was chipper and slept well.

The prescription was given for omnicef 125 mg at 3/4 teaspoon twice a day. I was also given a prescription for flucticasone, a cream to put on the rash and on his diaper rash until it clears up. I was smart and asked for the flavoring in the antibiotic only to find out the omnicef is already strawberry flavored. It actually doesn't taste half bad.

My, how fast he learns

I've been gone for four days and I'm amazed at everything Andy has picked up in my absence. He has figured out how to pee on the potty somewhat consistently (well, if twice in two days counts), he can say "No, un-uh," and he can officially call Mark's girlfriend Jamie by her first name. It's hard to be away, but it's so nice to come back and have the perspective to see what has changed. The other bonus to this trip was getting to spend time with my mother who came along. It would have been better had American Airlines not forced me to spend a night in Dallas, but otherwise it turned out well. The hotel was amazing. Seriously. Check out the link - http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1298. It actually looked that beautiful in person.

Andy has now finished his second round of antibiotics for his ears and we went to the doctor for a follow up appointment only to realize he still has an ear infection. The good news is they're better than they were at the two earlier appointments, but she didn't think they would heal on their own so he's not on another antibiotic, zithr-something or other. At least it's not as nasty tasting as the earlier one and the other good thing is it's only once a day for five days. That's a little more manageable than twice a day for 10 days. We go back next Friday to see if it's improved. She said this is classic for the two-year-old age group for them to get an ear infection and have it improve only for him to get another cold and have it come back. She said the antibiotics and warmer weather coming this week should really help improve things.

While I was there, I also asked about my freak rash on my leg and she said it's entirely possible to get poison ivy in winter and possibly from firewood or some other wooded area. I always knew I was special, but the ability to catch a rash in winter isn't what I was thinking.

Numbers

Andy is really figuring out his numbers. He recognizes a few on site now and loudly points them out. Like when the news is on, he points to the corner of the screen and shouts "Four!" It's awesome when he's right. He also can count in order (most of the time) up to five and sometimes 10. It's really amazing to watch the learning. Somehow I thought we'd be sitting around a book one day and he would learn his numbers that way rather than just picking them up through life. Same goes with his letters. He's figured a few out and happily points them out, like the O and the A, when he sees them written somewhere. Watching this stage of development is really pretty amazing.

The new antibiotic seems to be working, at least he's less cranky today. I think the stuff tastes terrible, but he doesn't seem to mind. I am irritated though that this one says to give him three CCs when the other was teaspoons and the Tylenol is in mL. Seriously, what's up with that? I'm a fairly bright person and usually read labels. I worry that other parents are accidentally overdosing (or underdosing) their kids, which could be pretty dangerous. Why all the different measurements? My flaw with this dose was not asking for it flavored. Apparently if you ask the pharmacy, they'll throw in a bubble gum flavor (or similar nausea-inducing gunk) to make it more palatable. Good to know for next time.

The double ear infection

It turns out the ear infection from two weeks ago has decided not to go away after all. Instead, it spread to the other ear. Dr. Staats gave Bjorn a prescription for another antibiotic and suggested that his ears bugging him could be the reason for his colic-esque behavior of the past week where he comes home and manages to let little things set him off. I was blaming the antiobiotic, turns out it's his ears. Great.

In better news, a little snow is expected tonight. Not much is expected, but considering it's 12 degrees outside (seriously, it is 12 degrees-I'm not exaggerating), whatever does fall is guaranteed to stick.

The trifecta

We went to the doctor today and Andy has the trifecta - ear infection, runny nose and sore throat all with a nasty cough. The good news is it's not in his lungs so no worry about pneumonia, but he had a cold that went to his ears and throat. The weird thing is he's been an angel this week and except for the cough, I didn't seem to notice him not feeling well. And now except for the cough, he seems in good spirits and rather cheerful and funny. Go figure. He got his first prescription for antibiotics and started after lunch. I hope it doesn't tear up his stomach the way the antibiotics messed me up around Christmas.

It's cold here and getting colder. An artic mass is pushing through and it's really windy, too, and makes screeching sounds as it whips around the house. We also have a little bit of snow flurries, but nothing is sticking. It really feels like winter now.

Fun

It's a fact - throwing diapers all over one's naked body and all over the floor in the span of about three minutes is about the most fun a 23 1/2 month old can have. Kudos, my friend, for ignoring the wealth of new toys Santa brought you and heading right for the Luvs.

Bjorn and I are both better today, but neither is close to 100 percent so at 8 p.m., we're both thinking about going to bed. In talking to folks, it seems just about everyone we know has someone in their family who has a stomach bug this week. Considering how similar Bjorn and my symptoms are, I'm wondering now if I had a stomach thing and not a reaction to the antibiotics. Either way, my stomach is still mushy. In theory, it should be making me us thinner, but we're both too bloated to see any measurable difference. Damnit. At least that would be one positive out of this whole mess.

Oh, my head

Despite having a fabulous Christmas with good food, family and friends, we've been invaded by germs. I came down with a bad ear infection Saturday where Bjorn had to take me to the emergency care place to get seen. It would figure I would need medical attention on the Saturday of a holiday weekend. The very nice doctor on call confirmed that I did indeed have a "raging ear infection" and prescribed lots of goodies including antibiotics to kill the bacteria, Nasonex to clear the passages, ear drops to numb the pain and Percocet to help me deal with pain and sleep. The pain had eased by Sunday in time for Christmas Eve festivities and by Christmas Day I still had the ringing in my ear, but otherwise felt better. By Tuesday, however, the stomach bug hit. I went to work for a few hours and endured stares from people saying "Get out of here, you crazy lady, and don't get the rest of us sick." I went to the doctor who said the ear was healing up nicely, but that stomach trouble was just a side effect of the antibiotics. He said to stay on them for another week, but after a night like last night where I couldn't keep anything down, I opted against starting up again. I figure I'll kick the stomach bug and then go back to the ear infection. Bjorn has also managed to get some type of stomach bug so we've been a joy to be around. Fortunately, Andy has seemed to miss this one (knock wood, HARD). Keep your fingers crossed that today was the worst of it for us. Those last 24 hours have been tough.

I have a new appreciation for how kids with ear infections feel. The pain hurts worse than I remembered and those antibiotics really do a number on an already sensitive stomach. It might make me rethink treatment for him in the future.

In my seclusion, I stumbled upon this Web site and this rang true for me -

I love my kids. I just don’t love the actual work of raising them. Oh and the amount of talking it requires. And the public humiliation. Also, the guilt of doing this job. But otherwise I love it all.

I, too, love my son more than I ever thought possible (oh, cliche), but what she said made me chuckle. And feel better that I'm not the only one out there, especially on a day like today where I feel so crappy, who wishes for a live-in housekeeper/nanny. You know, Pam Ewing on Dallas was always touted as the nicest, sweetest, bestest mom ever and she's always handing her kid off to the nanny to put to bed.