I'm hoping against hope that our bout with illness is at least temporarily over. My husband feels better, the pickle in Ragsy's ear is gone (for some reason, an ear infection somehow equals having a pickle in one's ear) and Evelyn is not sick. Yet. But she starts daycare part time on Monday and I go back to work a week from Monday, so Murphy's Law would indicate that she'll come down with something spectacularly bad by Sunday, so I'll have to stay home all the following week. Oh, well - things could be lots worse.
Anyway, everyone is getting healthy just in time for a couple of people to drop by tonight. On the one hand, I'm very much looking forward to it. I love having people over. I'm a lot like my mom in that I'm a feeder. I like to feed people, though I try not to be as persistent about it as she is. With my mom, if you don't eat what she makes, you don't like her. I've never taken not eating something personally, especially now since many of my friends (me, too!) are making efforts to have a healthier 2010.
On the other hand, having people over means I have to clean. This is actually not a negative since I need to organize the house and would like it to be in such a state where it's not hard to have people over with short notice; however, it does highlight two things for me: a) we're slobs and b) Evelyn really doesn't sleep that much. We haven't read the same books apparently. No matter - that's what slings were created for, I suppose. She'll just have to get acquainted with the vacuum cleaner.
Only tangentially related, I've found that our Parents as Teachers educator, combined with Evelyn and Ragsy's pediatrician together make the perfect childcare advisor. I think I'm in love with both of them. We had a visit from our PATNC educator yesterday and she actually helped me a LOT with some of Evelyn's sleep issues (i.e., that she would refuse to sleep during the day, making her so tired she'd stay up until midnight and crash for seven hours).
Although Evelyn is still not a fabulous napper, some of the suggestions I've received have already begun to pay off, with no tears necessary (on either side). And she delivers them in such a non-judgmental, calming way, which is worth its weight in gold. Then there's our pediatrician who always makes me feel like I'm making good decisions, even when she's somehow getting me to change my mind or when everyone else tells me I'm a whack job or spoiling my kids. Hats off to you, ladies.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Underwear.
I forgot how depressing post-pregnancy can be, and often for ridiculous reasons. My new gripe is that I not only have to shop for clothing, I also must buy new undies. I hate clothes shopping, especially after having given birth. The waist of everything is tight, while the butt and thighs are disproportionately loose, and spending so much money on good professional-looking shirts is a bit painful, given that my breasts are Pamela Anderson sized, so I'll need something large enough to accommodate them; however, anything large enough to do, unless it's fitted, will make me look like a tube from the boobs down.
Buying new underwear, however, is even worse. My current undies are all stretched out from accommodating an unwieldy belly. My midsection is still unwieldy, but it's even more bizarrely shaped than it was previously, thanks to all the stretching. Grrrr... This is something only plastic surgery can correct, too - snapping back into shape after pushing something the size of a watermelon out of your body isn't as easy as it was only three and a half years ago. Oh, well. Hopefully my acquisitive side will come out to play. Sadly, I only get acquisitive when it comes to things for my children and facial cleansers (I'm a junkie).
Buying new underwear, however, is even worse. My current undies are all stretched out from accommodating an unwieldy belly. My midsection is still unwieldy, but it's even more bizarrely shaped than it was previously, thanks to all the stretching. Grrrr... This is something only plastic surgery can correct, too - snapping back into shape after pushing something the size of a watermelon out of your body isn't as easy as it was only three and a half years ago. Oh, well. Hopefully my acquisitive side will come out to play. Sadly, I only get acquisitive when it comes to things for my children and facial cleansers (I'm a junkie).
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sicko.
My husband has now come down with whatever it was that Ragsy had. I also have it, but to a lesser degree - just a mild headache, scratchy throat and tiredness, but I'm always tired, so it's tough to tell whether that's illness-related to just normal motherhood. Plus, I seem to have a stronger immune system than everyone in the house, unless, of course it's a serious self-induced illness like shingles where my body decides to attack itself. My body is its own worst enemy. Maybe fate has decided to give me a break on external illnesses because of it.
Anyway, my husband is home with me and Evelyn today. He feels "weak," has a sore throat, headache, cough, snotty nose, etc. Normally I'd giggle at him for his choice of words, since whenever he says that it reminds me of Scarlett O'Hara, but in this case, I'd buy it. I just hope that this is what Evelyn had two weeks ago, but I'm not usually that lucky. So if she's going to get sick, hopefully she'll do it before I have to go back to work. I'd feel more sympathy for my husband than fear for her normally, but he's an adult and she's not.
The weekend went well, though moreso for me than my husband and Ragsy. While my method of getting Ragsy to sleep worked, it didn't help that I went out for the first time on Friday night. I had a great time (it was our holiday party - a tad belated) and awesome food, but came home to find that Evelyn had been up the whole time, alternately fussing, dozing and outright crying. The next day, Ragsy was irritable and out of sorts from having to be so patient while Evelyn gave her dad hell, so he spent a lot of time in time out. I've read books that say you're supposed to be tender and patient with your kid if they're acting out, but I disagree that I'm supposed to avoid discipline when my kid starts hitting his father.
Anyway, yesterday was a bit better and this morning even better, probably because we all got up, had breakfast together, then I took Ragsy to preschool instead of his father. My next experiment will be to start getting Ragsy out of bed earlier. His dad likes to stay in bed until the last possible moment, then rush out the door. I had been getting Ragsy up at 7, sometimes a bit before, so he'd have time to have breakfast, play a little and get dressed, but he'd been sleeping until 7:45 or 8, getting stuffed into his clothes and rushed out the door. I'm pretty sure that has something to do with his inability to sleep at night. We'll see.
Urhg. Evelyn's up again. So much for her sleeping better in her own room. I put her in there so my husband's coughing wouldn't wake her up. I guess she's just wired to wake up, probably because she sleeps so well at night.
Anyway, my husband is home with me and Evelyn today. He feels "weak," has a sore throat, headache, cough, snotty nose, etc. Normally I'd giggle at him for his choice of words, since whenever he says that it reminds me of Scarlett O'Hara, but in this case, I'd buy it. I just hope that this is what Evelyn had two weeks ago, but I'm not usually that lucky. So if she's going to get sick, hopefully she'll do it before I have to go back to work. I'd feel more sympathy for my husband than fear for her normally, but he's an adult and she's not.
The weekend went well, though moreso for me than my husband and Ragsy. While my method of getting Ragsy to sleep worked, it didn't help that I went out for the first time on Friday night. I had a great time (it was our holiday party - a tad belated) and awesome food, but came home to find that Evelyn had been up the whole time, alternately fussing, dozing and outright crying. The next day, Ragsy was irritable and out of sorts from having to be so patient while Evelyn gave her dad hell, so he spent a lot of time in time out. I've read books that say you're supposed to be tender and patient with your kid if they're acting out, but I disagree that I'm supposed to avoid discipline when my kid starts hitting his father.
Anyway, yesterday was a bit better and this morning even better, probably because we all got up, had breakfast together, then I took Ragsy to preschool instead of his father. My next experiment will be to start getting Ragsy out of bed earlier. His dad likes to stay in bed until the last possible moment, then rush out the door. I had been getting Ragsy up at 7, sometimes a bit before, so he'd have time to have breakfast, play a little and get dressed, but he'd been sleeping until 7:45 or 8, getting stuffed into his clothes and rushed out the door. I'm pretty sure that has something to do with his inability to sleep at night. We'll see.
Urhg. Evelyn's up again. So much for her sleeping better in her own room. I put her in there so my husband's coughing wouldn't wake her up. I guess she's just wired to wake up, probably because she sleeps so well at night.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Parenting experiments gone wrong.
Every parent performs certain experiments on their children. I'm not talking about injecting them with things or seeing what happens when you throw them in for a cage fight. I'm talking about what you do when something clearly isn't working. Case in point: bedtime at our household. Things go well from dinnertime to bathtime to book reading to lights out. But after that? That's when things get bumpy. Not only does Ragsy not want us to leave, he won't go to sleep after we're gone. For two hours. This doesn't particularly bother me. After all, he's in bed. He'll pass out eventually. But it bugs the crap out of my husband. It's one of those things that eats at him and eats at him until eventually he goes back and demands that he close his eyes, relax his arms and legs and, for God's sake, go to sleep so he can feel good in the morning. He'll go back again and again and eventually get so frustrated he sits and simmers. It can't be good for him.
And it never works. Now it's a control issue. Ragsy is wonderful and very well-controlled with Evelyn, and though he throws intense tantrums with us, everything boils down to us being bigger and therefore able to control the situation until he gives. So, when he falls asleep is really the only thing he can control absolutely, which makes me feel awful.
I talked about this with my husband and we decided we'd experiment with a couple approaches - he would suggest one and we would try it Tuesday. I would suggest one and we would try it tonight. Yes, yes, I know - you have to give an approach longer to work. But we're impatient people, which probably doesn't help the whole situation. Anyway...
My husband's: let him tell us when he's tired. I wasn't a huge fan of this approach, but it's really common in India. Most children don't go to bed until well after midnight when the whole family goes to sleep together. That's just the culture - dinner is usually at 9 or 10 p.m., then people sit down to chat for a while, get ready for bed, etc. and by the time people are winding down, it's usually around 12:30 or 1 a.m. Putting children to bed at a time other than when the parents sleep is virtually unheard of. Many kids simply pass out wherever they happen to be after a while and are carried to bed whenever the parents go to bed. I'm pretty sure that's why a siesta is built into the day. Everyone's so tired from staying up so late.
Mine: more textbook, but with a later bedtime to accommodate more transitions from one activity to the next. So far, he has a really tight schedule. Get home, play for 10 to 20 minutes, dinner. Immediately after dinner, bathtime. If he's lucky, he might get to play for 5 minutes between dinner and bath. After that, bedtime. So I'd like to try something that'd hopefully benefit both kids, with dimming lights, longer quiet (emphasis on quiet) playtime and, once Ragsy is in bed, informing him that he can sleep when he wants but needs to stay put (what? it worked with toilet training).
Last night's results were not that great, though I did cut things short. I probably shouldn't have - presenting other than a united front in front of your child is just not cool - but, dammit, I'd been trying to get Evelyn to sleep for two hours. She was starting to get upset and I was tired of laying in a dark room with a baby whose eyes snapped open at every frenetic shriek. At 10:30, I had to call it quits. When I finally went to the living room to tell Ragsy to go the heck to bed, I found all the lights in the house (other than the dark room where I'd been putting Evelyn down) blazing and Ragsy, looking a little wired and with dark circles under his eyes, helping his dad do laundry and take down our Christmas tree. Anyway, after he got into bed, Ragsy stayed up singing for another hour anyway and was impossible to get up this morning and once he was up, was stumbling a bit for a few minutes. He was also whiny and had very little time between waking and getting out the door.
Sometimes I feel like we're torturing our child. Oh, well - I guess trial and error is how you get to what works. I really, really hope my approach works. I don't care about being right. All I want is a little freaking peace, fewer tantrums and better quality sleep for everyone.
And it never works. Now it's a control issue. Ragsy is wonderful and very well-controlled with Evelyn, and though he throws intense tantrums with us, everything boils down to us being bigger and therefore able to control the situation until he gives. So, when he falls asleep is really the only thing he can control absolutely, which makes me feel awful.
I talked about this with my husband and we decided we'd experiment with a couple approaches - he would suggest one and we would try it Tuesday. I would suggest one and we would try it tonight. Yes, yes, I know - you have to give an approach longer to work. But we're impatient people, which probably doesn't help the whole situation. Anyway...
My husband's: let him tell us when he's tired. I wasn't a huge fan of this approach, but it's really common in India. Most children don't go to bed until well after midnight when the whole family goes to sleep together. That's just the culture - dinner is usually at 9 or 10 p.m., then people sit down to chat for a while, get ready for bed, etc. and by the time people are winding down, it's usually around 12:30 or 1 a.m. Putting children to bed at a time other than when the parents sleep is virtually unheard of. Many kids simply pass out wherever they happen to be after a while and are carried to bed whenever the parents go to bed. I'm pretty sure that's why a siesta is built into the day. Everyone's so tired from staying up so late.
Mine: more textbook, but with a later bedtime to accommodate more transitions from one activity to the next. So far, he has a really tight schedule. Get home, play for 10 to 20 minutes, dinner. Immediately after dinner, bathtime. If he's lucky, he might get to play for 5 minutes between dinner and bath. After that, bedtime. So I'd like to try something that'd hopefully benefit both kids, with dimming lights, longer quiet (emphasis on quiet) playtime and, once Ragsy is in bed, informing him that he can sleep when he wants but needs to stay put (what? it worked with toilet training).
Last night's results were not that great, though I did cut things short. I probably shouldn't have - presenting other than a united front in front of your child is just not cool - but, dammit, I'd been trying to get Evelyn to sleep for two hours. She was starting to get upset and I was tired of laying in a dark room with a baby whose eyes snapped open at every frenetic shriek. At 10:30, I had to call it quits. When I finally went to the living room to tell Ragsy to go the heck to bed, I found all the lights in the house (other than the dark room where I'd been putting Evelyn down) blazing and Ragsy, looking a little wired and with dark circles under his eyes, helping his dad do laundry and take down our Christmas tree. Anyway, after he got into bed, Ragsy stayed up singing for another hour anyway and was impossible to get up this morning and once he was up, was stumbling a bit for a few minutes. He was also whiny and had very little time between waking and getting out the door.
Sometimes I feel like we're torturing our child. Oh, well - I guess trial and error is how you get to what works. I really, really hope my approach works. I don't care about being right. All I want is a little freaking peace, fewer tantrums and better quality sleep for everyone.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
So, it's going to be one of those weeks.
Ragsy spent the weekend alternating between angel and demon. It seems that the rest of the week will be the same. And it sucks, for him (lots of time outs, and I can't imagine being that upset for so long feels good), for us (I've begun grinding my teeth at night again from the stress and have raised my voice far more than I like) and for Evelyn (who isn't a huge fan of noise to begin with; she'll just have to get used to that, though). Anyway, on Sunday for about a three-hour period, every time me or my husband addressed Ragsy, he would fall apart and begin these ear-shattering screams. We talked briefly to the pediatrician about it yesterday and his teachers, who advised us that yes, it's normal, no, he's great at preschool and to be calm throughout. I'm trying. Really, really hard. I know that raising my voice does not magically make him listen better. It scares him and all he hears is yelling. But, Christ on a cracker, I sometimes understand why people spank their kids, even if I'd never do it.
I'm glad that Ragsy chose preschool instead of us yesterday, even though he had the option of staying home. I was initially depressed, but after this morning, I got over it. Oh, well. I guess I don't always have to like my kid as long as I always love him.
I'm glad that Ragsy chose preschool instead of us yesterday, even though he had the option of staying home. I was initially depressed, but after this morning, I got over it. Oh, well. I guess I don't always have to like my kid as long as I always love him.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Where is the sun?
This is such a stream of consciousness post, but... I can't wait for spring. Cannot wait. I don't have SADD, but I still feel much more alive in sunlight. I used to be a night person, but I love watching the sun come up. Which is a good thing, given Evelyn's appearance in our lives.
I'm so excited to start running with my son in the evening and to show Evelyn the garden. I can't wait to start planting, Evelyn permitting. One thing I can wait for is going back to work. At least it won't be in the dark - I was fortunate enough to miss the crappiest part of winter at work, where everything is black when you walk inside the office and again when you leave - but, I really, really don't want to go back.
I never thought I'd say that. With Ragsy I couldn't get back fast enough. I loved him then and now as passionately as I did Evelyn, but there was definitely some resentment, both from labor and also just adjusting to the idea that my body was no longer my own, even less so than it had been during pregnancy. Going to work was like regaining my old self. Coming back was like losing myself again. Horrible way to look at things, isn't it? But after a while, I grew to need him - he was something we never knew we were missing until he was born and my husband and I settled into our roles as mother and father and husband and wife.
Having Evelyn has been the same, both in roles and in just her integrating into our family. There have been some moments when I thought, "What have we done to ourselves? What about our son?" But then Ragsy makes some offhand comment and I realize that, in some ways, he's integrated her into the family better than I have and I need to calm then hell down because he's taking the addition better than I am, even though he's letting us have it.
Another unexpected side effect of parenthood was that I started to assume not just the one role, the one I played with my husband, but three. I'm one person with my husband and another alone with my child. Then there's that other person I am with my husband and my child. They're all very similar, but subtly different.
Oh, well. Blah, blah, blah, right? No matter how much I ramble, it doesn't change that I have to go back to work. I can change what I do and where I go, though. I guess I ought to work on that instead of complaining about it and waxing philosophical about parenthood. It is what it is. Sometimes it really, really sucks. Strangely, the endless walking at 4 a.m. is the least of the suckage. But sometimes you have a transcendent moment that just makes it all worth it.
I'm so excited to start running with my son in the evening and to show Evelyn the garden. I can't wait to start planting, Evelyn permitting. One thing I can wait for is going back to work. At least it won't be in the dark - I was fortunate enough to miss the crappiest part of winter at work, where everything is black when you walk inside the office and again when you leave - but, I really, really don't want to go back.
I never thought I'd say that. With Ragsy I couldn't get back fast enough. I loved him then and now as passionately as I did Evelyn, but there was definitely some resentment, both from labor and also just adjusting to the idea that my body was no longer my own, even less so than it had been during pregnancy. Going to work was like regaining my old self. Coming back was like losing myself again. Horrible way to look at things, isn't it? But after a while, I grew to need him - he was something we never knew we were missing until he was born and my husband and I settled into our roles as mother and father and husband and wife.
Having Evelyn has been the same, both in roles and in just her integrating into our family. There have been some moments when I thought, "What have we done to ourselves? What about our son?" But then Ragsy makes some offhand comment and I realize that, in some ways, he's integrated her into the family better than I have and I need to calm then hell down because he's taking the addition better than I am, even though he's letting us have it.
Another unexpected side effect of parenthood was that I started to assume not just the one role, the one I played with my husband, but three. I'm one person with my husband and another alone with my child. Then there's that other person I am with my husband and my child. They're all very similar, but subtly different.
Oh, well. Blah, blah, blah, right? No matter how much I ramble, it doesn't change that I have to go back to work. I can change what I do and where I go, though. I guess I ought to work on that instead of complaining about it and waxing philosophical about parenthood. It is what it is. Sometimes it really, really sucks. Strangely, the endless walking at 4 a.m. is the least of the suckage. But sometimes you have a transcendent moment that just makes it all worth it.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
I think I'm going to hurl.
I haven't overeaten in a long, long time, probably six or seven months. And you wouldn't imagine that, with a dinner of fruit and cheese, I would. But I crammed myself full of brie, manchego, strawberries and cantaloupe, then indulged in some chocolate cake afterward and now I feel like I'm going to explode. I'm glad I wore my maternity jeans today. Oh, well. It was really, really worth it.
Sadly, that was the highlight of my evening. Ragsy pitched a fit today. Well, two fits, which set Evelyn off - once in the car and again when I had to hand her over to her dad so I could deal with said fit. Blargh. What a day.
I'm still a little unsettled from a dream I had last night, too. I think I must have been partially awake, too, which made it all the more weird. In the dream, I was walking Evelyn to sleep after a feeding. Not too weird. The weird part was that I knew that I was dead and that my reality overlay someone else's who was living in my former house. I was the ghost they heard pacing up and down the halls, into their bedroom and through the family room. My footsteps and Evelyn's cries were keeping them awake and afraid. I couldn't see them, but a couple were laying in a bed right where ours used to be, huddling in fear. From me. It was very much like the end of The Others.
Sadly, that was the highlight of my evening. Ragsy pitched a fit today. Well, two fits, which set Evelyn off - once in the car and again when I had to hand her over to her dad so I could deal with said fit. Blargh. What a day.
I'm still a little unsettled from a dream I had last night, too. I think I must have been partially awake, too, which made it all the more weird. In the dream, I was walking Evelyn to sleep after a feeding. Not too weird. The weird part was that I knew that I was dead and that my reality overlay someone else's who was living in my former house. I was the ghost they heard pacing up and down the halls, into their bedroom and through the family room. My footsteps and Evelyn's cries were keeping them awake and afraid. I couldn't see them, but a couple were laying in a bed right where ours used to be, huddling in fear. From me. It was very much like the end of The Others.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
And so it begins.
We'll need to start transitioning Evelyn out of our room sooner than I had originally thought. She detests her co-sleeper and has grown so long her feet touch the end of the bouncinette, even when her head is where it's supposed to be. Plus, she's already kicking out of her swaddle and trying to sleep on her side. By the time she wakes up for a feeding or in the morning, her butt is where her feet should be and her legs are dangling over the edge of the bouncinette. Funny, yes. Safe or comfortable? Probably not.
We had also thought that we'd found a way to comfort her when she'd really lost it in the form of a pacifier. Not so. Yesterday I was completely frazzled after a long day of dealing with her. Then Ragsy came home and began screaming bloody murder - you know, the type of shriek that makes you wonder where you've gone wrong as a parent and makes your ears ring and causes temporary hearing loss. Anyway, that freaked her out further, her dad started yelling to get Ragsy's attention and I just needed to put her down and leave the room temporarily before I began screaming, too. So I tried to give her a pacifier because I didn't want to leave her panicking. Yeah, right. How she managed to spit a pacifier out of her mouth, over the edge of her bouncinette and six inches away onto the floor will always remain a mystery.
Worse was that she calmed down and laughed at me, then blew a raspberry at me. Good grief. Someone save me.
We had also thought that we'd found a way to comfort her when she'd really lost it in the form of a pacifier. Not so. Yesterday I was completely frazzled after a long day of dealing with her. Then Ragsy came home and began screaming bloody murder - you know, the type of shriek that makes you wonder where you've gone wrong as a parent and makes your ears ring and causes temporary hearing loss. Anyway, that freaked her out further, her dad started yelling to get Ragsy's attention and I just needed to put her down and leave the room temporarily before I began screaming, too. So I tried to give her a pacifier because I didn't want to leave her panicking. Yeah, right. How she managed to spit a pacifier out of her mouth, over the edge of her bouncinette and six inches away onto the floor will always remain a mystery.
Worse was that she calmed down and laughed at me, then blew a raspberry at me. Good grief. Someone save me.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Work again, work again, jiggity jig.
I need to face it: I'm going back to work in less than a month and starting Evelyn in day care in less than that. Bleh. I'm really not looking forward to it. Not only has this maternity leave been night and day compared to leave with Ragsy when I was so sick when my husband went back to work, I'll be going back to a long commute without the anticipation of a mental challenge and will be thinking about my kids while I'm there. I've actually grown to like my boss kind of, but I really need something more difficult if I'm going to stay, or he'll need to let me work from home sometimes.
Plus, the cost is just astronomical, but I really like our day care and preschool. Oh, well. Time to create that budget.
And, of course, Evelyn is waking up because I had the unmitigated gall to get online. Contrary little girl. I like that, but it'd be nice if she'd resume her predictable napping schedule. At least she's feeling better. The seepage is gone and nursing is going smoothly again, so I can only assume her ears feel better. Here's hoping it lasts.
Plus, the cost is just astronomical, but I really like our day care and preschool. Oh, well. Time to create that budget.
And, of course, Evelyn is waking up because I had the unmitigated gall to get online. Contrary little girl. I like that, but it'd be nice if she'd resume her predictable napping schedule. At least she's feeling better. The seepage is gone and nursing is going smoothly again, so I can only assume her ears feel better. Here's hoping it lasts.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Oh, hell.
I bring disease and pestilence to whosoever shall come into contact with me. And here's why:
So, I put Evelyn down for her nap today at 9 a.m. She was clear-eyed and calm. She woke up screaming at 10:30 with her left eye sealed shut and seeping. I picked her up, called the doctor's office and went in, knowing already that it was pinkeye. So they prescribed some drops and I picked them up and went home. I tried to eat lunch, but Evelyn wasn't having any of it. So, I chucked my sandwich and we played for a while (like Ragsy, she's apparently a happy patient when alert) and she seemed...off. You know that feeling you get where your spidey senses start tingling? I kept putting it off, thinking, "I've already been to the pediatrician. They're going to think I'm insane." So I waited, then thought, "I really don't want to have to go to urgent care. I'd rather they think I'm nuts than want to kick myself when she's really in pain and shrieking on Saturday." So I called and they patiently made room for me and I brought her in again.
My pediatrician, who I love, told me not to worry, that she understood (and would happily bill our insurance). She took a look at Evelyn's ears and, lo and behold, fluid and redness in both. More antibiotics, this time oral. And now she has diarrhea. And she can't sleep because her ears hurt, her eyes burn and she can't nurse for comfort because, well, her ears hurt. I'd give her Tylenol, but I can't remember how much the doctor said to give, so we (or mostly me since she won't let anyone else touch her) are up a creek without a paddle. Tonight is going to be a fun one. Still, I can deal with diarrhea and sleeping on the couch for a night or so as long as the antibiotics kick in soon.
So, I put Evelyn down for her nap today at 9 a.m. She was clear-eyed and calm. She woke up screaming at 10:30 with her left eye sealed shut and seeping. I picked her up, called the doctor's office and went in, knowing already that it was pinkeye. So they prescribed some drops and I picked them up and went home. I tried to eat lunch, but Evelyn wasn't having any of it. So, I chucked my sandwich and we played for a while (like Ragsy, she's apparently a happy patient when alert) and she seemed...off. You know that feeling you get where your spidey senses start tingling? I kept putting it off, thinking, "I've already been to the pediatrician. They're going to think I'm insane." So I waited, then thought, "I really don't want to have to go to urgent care. I'd rather they think I'm nuts than want to kick myself when she's really in pain and shrieking on Saturday." So I called and they patiently made room for me and I brought her in again.
My pediatrician, who I love, told me not to worry, that she understood (and would happily bill our insurance). She took a look at Evelyn's ears and, lo and behold, fluid and redness in both. More antibiotics, this time oral. And now she has diarrhea. And she can't sleep because her ears hurt, her eyes burn and she can't nurse for comfort because, well, her ears hurt. I'd give her Tylenol, but I can't remember how much the doctor said to give, so we (or mostly me since she won't let anyone else touch her) are up a creek without a paddle. Tonight is going to be a fun one. Still, I can deal with diarrhea and sleeping on the couch for a night or so as long as the antibiotics kick in soon.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Mental miscellany
I have so much random stuff floating around in my head, in part because it's my nature and also in part because I don't get much adult company during the day and I'm too much a coward to leave the nice, warm house with my seven-week old to go somewhere more exciting like, say, the mall or Babies R Us (I'm thinking of getting a baby seat for the kitchen; the stroller takes up way too much room). Sad when that's my idea of excitement.
Right now, I've got a kid on my chest and have for, oh, about two hours. I think my butt is creating a trough in this chair. Ah, well. I guess that's what maternity leave is for. Partially, anyway. Maybe I can watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog again. I'm really glad a friend suggested I buy it rather than borrow it again (you know who you are) - I got two copies and gave one to my brother-in-law instead of having him watch it over the holiday. He loved it.
This'll tell you how lame I am: did you know that they now make Snuggies for dogs?
Right now, I've got a kid on my chest and have for, oh, about two hours. I think my butt is creating a trough in this chair. Ah, well. I guess that's what maternity leave is for. Partially, anyway. Maybe I can watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog again. I'm really glad a friend suggested I buy it rather than borrow it again (you know who you are) - I got two copies and gave one to my brother-in-law instead of having him watch it over the holiday. He loved it.
This'll tell you how lame I am: did you know that they now make Snuggies for dogs?
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