Little Raindrops

Posts Tagged ‘ailments’

How are moms supposed do this? I’ve spent the last three days on the brink of death (not really, but you know, I felt like it) and absolutely no opportunity to recuperate. I had a low fever, lots of aches, sore throat, constant headache, upset stomach … and a teething baby and insanely wild toddler. They didn’t seem to get the message that Mom wasn’t feeling up for dealing with their moods. Matt works all night and sleeps all day and we have very few hours together where he can lend a hand. One night Heron sat up pretty much all night screaming for an hour, drifting off to sleep for 10-20 minutes, screaming for another hours, etc. I’m doing everything I know to do to soothe his achy gums (I’m assuming that’s the problem even though I don’t see any budding teeth yet.) He’s doing a little better now, but the peak of his discomfort seemed to be at my peak as well. And Rhino … Rhino! He knows just when to act out the most. Right when Heron finally calms down enough to nurse or fall asleep in my arms, that’s when Rhino causes the most damage. Do I drop the baby, upsetting him all over again, to give Rhino a swat? Or do I whisper-yell at him from across the room and give him lots of Mean Mommy looks. Yeah, he knows when he can get away with tearing all the DVDs out of the stand or pulling all our condiments out of the fridge. It’s been a long, long week and I am ready to go to sleep for a month.

My dear Rhino,

This month has been very busy! You’re running around even more, playing cute games, and babbling to us in your own language. You keep growing, of course. You’re now 30.5 inches tall and weigh 22 pounds. We’re not worried about your low weight anymore, it seems you’re just a smaller guy right now. I think it’s because you’re always burning off so much energy keeping active! You still love dancing and have a whole bunch of cute and hilarious moves. You will dance to songs in movies we’re watching, music on the radio, the sound of the dishwasher or washing machine, or songs I sing or whistle. We have been attending church early on Sundays and are around for choir practice, which is my favorite time to watch you dance! You run into the auditorium as soon as you hear the piano and dance in the aisle, either squatting, sumo-stepping, or rocking back and forth, then clap for the choir at the end of every song. You’re so amusing! You’ve always been pretty interested in music. You love the little toy piano Aunt Jen gave you for Christmas. I’ve also set up a keyboard so I can practice the piano and you are very excited about that! You like to listen, but you really enjoy playing, too. Every day we get about 30 minutes in front of the keys together where you play little musical patterns, alternate between the highest and lowest keys, or bang excitedly! You also like playing the guitar and more than once have unzipped the guitar case and struggled to pull it out of the bag so you can sit on the floor and pick away. I do hope that this interest sticks with you and you will pick up some instrument later on!

You are also such a big sweetheart. I am still pregnant and awaiting your baby brother and Daddy gives me a massage every day to help me relax or ease some of the pregnancy aches. You always want to be involved and will help rub my legs or back alongside Daddy. Usually your massages tickle or you just rock me, but it makes me so happy! You’re copying us more and more each day and always seem to want to do what we’re doing. It’s so much fun having you around!

Part of our month was a little stressful. You had been sick in the past, but recently you were even more sick. Your temperature rose to 104 degrees, which had me really scared. You tried to do the things you usually do and seemed to want to be in a good mood, but we could tell how drained you were. You spent about four days really tired and calm. You weren’t sleeping well and didn’t have much interest in food. We took you to the doctor and he determined you had an upper respiratory infection and all we could do was let you get over it. We kept trying to keep your fever down with Motrin. Daddy and I got sick at the same time and our whole household was pretty pathetic. We got through it though, and you were such a trooper! I’m so glad you’re better now!

We had one more big change this month: we moved to a new house! Because we’re adding another member to our family, the military has let us have a larger home. It was a lot of work to pack everything up, move all our stuff, and clean the old place, but the new house is so nice that it was definitely worth it! You started to get a little stressed out at the old house with all the mess and boxes. As soon as we were given our new home, you loved running around the big, open rooms! We had to go back and forth between the old and new houses and your mood would sour so much when we arrived at the old place, but whenever we showed up in the new home you would get so happy! I’m glad you like our new house! You were very helpful in the moving, though. When Daddy would carry boxes to the car, he’d give you something small to carry (a small box or your baby wipes or a little bag) and you would carry alongside him. You’d also want to help clean with any rag or paper towel you found. Mrs. Kiser came over to help clean up the old house and when she took down all the long, vertical blinds in the living room to wipe them down, you sat on the other end with your own paper towel wiping away, too! Now we’re mostly settled down into the new house and you seem to be right at home.

Maybe next month when I write your 17 Month letter, you’ll be a big brother! I can’t wait to see how you react to a little baby around the house. I know it will be a big adjustment, but I won’t forget about my sweet, first born boy! You’ll get a lot of time with Daddy at first, but I know I’ll miss you (I’ll have to be in the hospital for a couple of days) and want to spend time with you, too! I love you so much, Rhino!

Love,
Mommy

On Saturday Matt and I took Rhino out for a walk (and drive) up the big hill behind our house.

Matt would push Rhino around in his little red car — and really fast down little hills, which made me nervous, but they had a good time!

I’m having fun practicing taking photos, of course! Spring is so pretty here and I really like our little neighborhood. There are tons of gorgeous things to photograph! We made it up to top of the tall hill out back, where I love all the tall yellow grass that covers it. Rhino took a couple of little tumbles, but it was cute and he didn’t seem to mind. It seems like he thought the tall grass was a little strange and couldn’t keep his balance very well on the hill, but he had fun!

I definitely need to get some allergy medication quickly. In California my springtime allergies didn’t act up so much, but here I’m miserable! Especially if I’m going to be getting down in the grass to get pictures of flowers, etc., I’m going to need something to keep me from getting all runny, itchy, and red! Ick!

I feel kind of guilty that I haven’t said more about this pregnancy. It’s not that I’m not excited about Baby’s arrival, but of course it’s not quite the same as it was with Rhino. Plus, he’s keeping me too busy to have pregnancy on my mind 24/7! I would be doing Belly Shots now too, but I have no camera so that will have to wait. Plus, I’m sure they’ll all look about the same as last time!

I took my gestational diabetes test on Wednesday. It wasn’t so bad. I went, chugged my super sweet flat orange soda, and had an hour to read a book by myself (which hasn’t happened in SO long!) They took some blood and I haven’t heard anything back, so I’m assuming no news is good news. It wasn’t a problem last time and I haven’t been loading up on sugar or packing on too many pounds, so I’m not worried.

Yesterday I had my 28 week appointment with Doctor #3. It was our first time meeting with him and as of right now he’s ranked lowest for me. We have no idea who will deliver Baby, but I’m hoping it’s Doctor #2. We’ll see in a couple of months, though! The appointment was quick and there wasn’t really anything too exciting to speak of. Rhino came along again and still hates doctors. He was doing all right until Doc messed around with the chair and I had to lie back — then he freaked out! I’m not sure if he thinks the doctor is going to hurt me or what is going through his little head. We heard Baby’s heartbeat, which was around 140 bpm. I’ve put on 17 pounds so far, which I think is much less than I did at this time with Rhino. For the last few weeks I’ve been revisited by some morning sickness. I’m sure that’s what it is, it just happens in the morning and it feels just the same. I’m eating small snacks, healthy breakfasts, drinking liquids; nothing’s really changed (just hormones?) I mentioned it to Doctor #3 and he said he’s never heard of morning sickness returning, so he thinks I’m just sick with some GI bug. I’m not a doctor, but I think he’s wrong. I really don’t think I’m sick. It’s no biggie to me, though, it’s just annoying having to run off to the bathroom and shut Rhino out (so he doesn’t get in the way) then have him scream and pound at the door to let him in while Matt’s asleep!

I also asked if there will be an opportunity to tour the facilities, ask questions, see how everything works. He said I can do that, but everything is routine and there’s not much to it. I didn’t dig any deeper, but I’m a little hesitant still to bring up providing a birth plan (though we will) or talk about things like delivering Baby straight to my chest without cutting the cord immediately or us taking the placenta home. I think I’ll wait a few more weeks to test the waters there.

Really, the pregnancy is going fine and I’m feeling pretty good! My back pains have relaxed a lot and I’m still keeping active. I think this little guy is moving around a whole lot more than Rhino did (or maybe I just don’t remember clearly?) I get some really strong, sometimes a tad painful kicks. I think I’m carrying higher also, as it gets really difficult to breathe sometimes with all the lung-squishing. For some reason Rhino has started kissing and babbling (and head-butting until I stop him!) to my tummy a lot lately. I don’t know if there’s some sense about what’s going on or if he just likes to play with a big, bare belly. It’s cute any way!

I had my third prenatal appointment this morning. Just to catch up, my first appointment was at 9 weeks for a dating ultrasound, where I measured at 8 weeks and 4 days. (I haven’t yet scanned in the image, but I will soon to post it here!) They determined my due date to be July 8, 2009. We left a few days later for the our vacation, and when we arrived back home I had another appointment just to check in. No weight gain yet, got the results back from a bunch of blood tests that were all fine, met a different doctor, and everything went smoothly. The base has three OBs and they don’t know who will be on to deliver the baby, so I get appointments with each of them randomly so I have some sort of relationship with all of them. I don’t love how that works, but that’s what we have to do. Right now I have a warmer feeling about Doctor #2, but I haven’t yet met Doctor #3. At today’s appointment I had Doctor #1 again, who told me I have to stop nursing Rhino immediately because it is dangerous to do so. I know this isn’t true and that I must pay greater attention to my nutrition and hydration, but it isn’t necessary to stop. Unfortunately, I think I’m about ready to. Rhino is almost a year and can start drinking cow’s and soy milk soon and the pregnancy is wearing on my body in a way that really is making breastfeeding a drag. I’d like to stick it out as long as possible, but that may just be a matter of a couple more weeks. I think he’ll be okay with it soon, too, as he is enjoying more foods, water, and juices and we don’t spend as much time nursing as we used to anyway. Also at the appointment today we talked about the cystic fibrosis test and the quad screen, neither of which we had while I was pregnant with Rhino. We declined those this time as well for a few reasons. We also heard Baby’s heartbeat today, which was a strong 140 beats per minute. I still haven’t gained any weight yet, but it’s nothing to worry about. The pounds will definitely start piling on soon! I’ve recently been having lower back pains where I am unable to sit up straight while lying on my back — I get stuck a couple inches off the ground. I’ve been attending a yoga and pilates class and have noticed that even some of the simple movements I used to do have become very painful. I have had mild discomfort since Rhino was born, but during the last couple of weeks it has gotten much worse. I know that pregnancy has its associated pains and with pressure and bones shifting, this will happen. I asked Doctor #1 about it today and she pretty much just told me it will get worse and there’s nothing to be done. I can stick it out, of course, I was mostly worried that neglecting it would cause a problem. I’m stopping the yoga/pilates class and Matt has to help me out of bed sometimes, but I think that’s just how it’s going to be for a while! Other than that, there wasn’t much else about the appointment. I’ll schedule another one for 5 weeks from now as well as my ~20week ultrasound (no, we are not finding out the sex!)

Hi sweetie! You’re now 8 months and doing fantastically! You’ve lost a tiny bit of weight compared to last month, but it’s probably because you’ve also been a little sick. You had your first cold, but you got through it like a trooper! At first whenever you’d cough or sneeze, you would smile or giggle because it was oh, so amusing! You got tired of that pretty quickly, though. We didn’t go to the doctor because you seemed to be doing really well with everything and had a great attitude all the way through. Daddy and I were sick at the same time, so it made the whole week a little stressful. At least that’s over with now!

Your friends Josh and Aime are visiting their grandparents in Texas right now, so you haven’t seen them much this month. You did have a nice visit with Samantha from church and across the street. I babysat her for a few hours and you two had fun playing together! She is 6 months older than you and it was fun to spend time with her and see about where you’ll be in the near future. We also met a lady who has a son, James, who is 2 weeks younger than you. We got together to play at his house and at the playground and you guys were too cute playing side by side!

You’ve been eating solid foods for a while now, but I’ve mostly looked at it at exploring new tastes and sensations. Now we’re trying to have more regular meals for you. Mealtime was a huge mess and was a little frustrating for me for a bit. When I used baby food you would get it everywhere, grab it with your hands, wipe your ears, play with your hair, and we’d have to rush off to the bathtub after every meal! I found that if I tuck your hands under your high chair tray, you keep them down in your lap and I can spoon feed you without you rubbing it all over your body. It may sound mean, but you don’t appear to mind having your arms pinned at all and mealtime goes much more smoothly. I’m trying to move away from the liquid baby foods more and have you feed yourself little bits of things. You have tried all sorts of new foods recently, most of which were a success! You love baked carrots and cauliflower with nutmeg and gobble them all down very quickly. You’ve had egg yolk and also yogurt, both of which you aren’t quite so sure about. Yesterday you had some cottage cheese with mango pieces that you loved! Last night for dinner you had some acorn squash pieces and also baked chicken and brown rice. You were pretty unsure about the chicken, so I ground it up in some sweet potato baby food (which you love!) You still love to munch on your sweet potato puffs – your favorite food! Daddy and I are lining up puffs along the clean carpet to try to encourage you to crawl. You will lean and reach as far as you possibly can then flop to your stomach and stretch even farther!

Speaking of crawling, you did crawl for the first time a couple of weeks ago! I was sitting in a chair and there were some toys and your books by my feet and you flopped from a sitting position and crawled on your hands and knees for about a foot and then creeped on your tummy for another foot to reach the book. Daddy and I were so excited that you were getting around on your own, but that was the last time we’ve seen you do that! There’s no rush, sweetie, but it will be fun when you’re traveling around the room on your own!

We haven’t done a whole lot that is too exciting. You love going to stores and looking at all the neat little things, so we do go shopping together. We’ve been out for a little hiking and walks around the base. We’re still having a great time at home, playing, reading, Skyping with grandparents, and snuggling together. Daddy and I love you very much and are looking forward to another wonderful month!

Love,
Mommy

We went back to finish our hike of the gorge. We had gone a few weekends ago, and only made it about 4.5 miles into the gorge before turning around. The hike is about 9 miles to the lake, but an 18 miles hike was just too much for the 3 of us for the day. So today we parked at the lake and worked our way backwards. We didn’t quite make it as far as we had wanted — only about 3 miles in, a 6 mile walk total. We did see some gorgeous waterfalls, though! It was raining, but we were pretty protected from all the tree cover. Hardly anything made it down to us. Rhino’s new backpack carrier has a snazzy little rain hood, so he was just fine. (Yeah, we got a new one. The other one was really uncomfortable for us and left nasty marks on Rhino. We sprung for a nicer one that we should get plenty of use out of.) I think everything was even prettier this second time around while it was all wet and shimmery. The trail was a little muddy, but that can be fun, too! Matt and I were still recovering from being sick (Matt’s has been lingering, then I think he got me sick again!) so I was glad to have a short day. We did see Lake Towada, but didn’t explore around it. We’ll drive back just to hike around the lake someday soon. Here are some photos from our second trip:

Rhino had his two month well baby appointment with the base pediatrician today. They took his length (24.4 in; 92nd percentile) and weight (14lb 15oz; 95th percentile). He has a very mild case of cradle cap, but it’s nothing to worry about and we don’t need to do anything for it. The doctor also talked to us about vitamin D supplementation, which apparently is recommended for babies over two months who are exclusively breastfed. Babies, usually with darker skin, are at a risk of rickets because they don’t get enough vitamin D in the first year. He said if Rhino got about ten minutes of sunlight each day, that would be more than enough to make up for the deficiency. We took home some multivitamin drops in case we want to use them, but for now we’re thinking we’ll just stick with sunlight and not worry about it. The doc says that shouldn’t be a problem for Rhino.

We also started his vaccinations today. I’ve been doing a lot of research over the past few months about vaccines and their controversies surrounding them. It’s a tough choice — whether to vaccinate and risk the side effects, or to opt-out and risk the disease. I got a great book by Dr. Bob Sears where he provided a lot of information about each of the twelve vaccines, their associated diseases, risks, etc. The book was helpful, but it still doesn’t make some of these choices easy. He provided a vaccination schedule as an alternate to the AAP’s recommended schedule. These are the reasons he gave for the alternative schedule:

The main difference in my suggested alternative vaccine schedule is it spreads the infant vaccines out over the first few years of life, instead of bunching them all up in the first 18 months. It gives fewer vaccines at a time, gives the most important vaccines first, and slightly delays the less important vaccines. But ultimately the end result is the same – a fully vaccinated child. What are the benefits of my alternative schedule compared to the standard one?

• By only giving two vaccines at a time (instead of as many as 6), I decrease the chance of chemical overload from grouping so many vaccines chemicals all together at once. This allows a baby’s body to better detoxify the chemicals one or two at a time.

• I give only 1 aluminum-containing vaccine at a time (instead of the recommended 4). Overloading on this metal can be particularly toxic to the brain.
• I give only one live-virus vaccine component at a time to allow the body’s immune system to better handle the live viruses in these vaccines.
• Giving fewer shots at a time may decrease the side effects, in my experience.
• Giving fewer shots at a time also makes it easier to figure out which vaccine a child is reacting to if a severe reaction occurs.

That sounded reasonable to me. With us traveling internationally, I was too concerned about some of the diseases and didn’t want to opt-out. (Maybe, had we been staying state-side, I could have seen not giving Rhino a few of them.) I like the idea of the alternative schedule, and he will eventually be fully vaccinated if we choose to stay on the schedule. The doctor and I talked about this for a little while and I was pleased not to have been met with resistance. With the experiences I’ve had with the last few doctors, I was a little nervous that the doctor wouldn’t want to discuss it. I wish all doctors were like this pediatrician! So that all worked out just fine. I gave Rhino his rotavirus vaccine orally and the technician injected him with the DTaP vaccine. I had heard a few times of mothers nursing their babies while they were injected and that it helps keep the baby calm or sometimes they don’t stir at all. I asked the technicians about that and they seemed kind of shocked and said they can’t accommodate that for their own safety. Rhino did just fine stretched out on the table, though. He let out one shriek and then was fine when I picked him up. And he got a cute yellow crayon band-aid on his thigh! As for the DTaP vaccine, Dr. Bob recommends either the Daptacel or Tripedia, not the Infanrix. This is mostly for the high level of aluminum in the Infanrix brand. Well, that was the only one that the clinic had, so we went ahead and chose to do it anyway. When Rhino is 3 months, we’ll be getting him the Pc and the HiB immunizations.

This is what Barbara, our Bradley instructor and doula wrote about Rhino’s birth:

The Birth of “Rhino”

I arrived at your house just before 10 am. You had been having contractions all night and they were now 4-6 minutes apart. Your water had been leaking during the night, too. Since we had an hour drive to the hospital, we all agreed that it would be best to go ahead and drive to Santa Barbara.

It was a hard drive for you. You couldn’t get comfortable and got sick.

We arrived at the hospital around 11:20 am and they hooked you up to the monitor for an initial strip. They did an exam and found 5-6 cm, 100% effaced. They took you off the monitor. You threw up again (4th time) so they started you on an IV.

12:30 pm – Dr. came in to check on you. Exam – 6-7 cm, 0 station. Started IV antibiotics. They were concerned about the baby’s heartbeat, so you couldn’t take a bath.

12:50 – Bathroom and on the birth ball for a few contractions.

1:15 – Feeling some pressure, maybe wanting to push. Exam – 8-9 cm, +1 station. Baby looks better. A lip, but baby in good position.

You did such an amazing job working together.

1:30 – Grunting at the peak of contractions. Nurse says it’s OK to push, just don’t hold your breath.

1:40 – 9.5 cm, rim of cervix left.

Started pushing around 2:00.

Baby “Rhino” is born at 4:06, February 13, 2008.

Placenta took a long time to come,I think it was finally born around 5:15. Thank you, God!!! They were talking about doing surgery to get it out. I rubbed and rubbed the top of your uterus, trying to get it to detach.

Rhino wasn’t a very aggressive nurser right away, but he caught on. You and Matt are going to be great parents. Rhino is blessed to have you.

“Rhino”
Born February 13, 2008 at 4:06 PM
weight: 8 lb 10 oz
height: 20-3/4 in

Matt has been working mid-shifts, 5:30pm-6am. I was up late Tuesday night when my water started leaking and I had weak contractions. It was about 1:30am and I decided not to get too excited just yet — we could have a very long day ahead of us. I didn’t call Matt because I didn’t want him to come home until I needed him because I didn’t want his paternity leave to start just yet. Around 3:30am contractions were about 8 minutes apart and I couldn’t sleep through them. I was debating whether or not to call Matt or just wait a few more hours. Matt came home at 6 and we decided to try and get some rest. Of course, I couldn’t sleep more than a few minutes at a time. Matt got about an hour of sleep before I woke him. I called Barbara around 8 and told her I was feeling fine, but to stand by. She had spent a week in Kentucky and had just arrived back the previous day, very tired. I had been feeling decent, but from then on things started speeding up a lot. I called Barbara back at 9 to let her know she needed to hurry up. I was considering just skipping Santa Barbara and going to the Lompoc hospital instead. She assured me I had plenty of time, but she was still an hour away from us. Matt was great with every contraction and made sure to take care of me, give me plenty of water, rub my back, and keep me calm. I was encouraged to eat a little bit, so I made some oatmeal. Then I started getting sick with the contractions, which was quite a surprise. Barbara arrived around 10 and we pretty much left right away.

The drive to Santa Barbara is about an hour and I didn’t think that would be such a bad idea. Contractions were uncomfortable enough in a bed, they were even worse in the passenger’s seat of Barbara’s car. I was sick a few times along the way and had to pull over on the side of the 101 for an especially rough contraction. We showed up at the hospital at 11 and a nurse told me to take a seat in the waiting room. Sitting was the last thing I wanted to do, so I took my pillow and curled up on the floor. The man sitting next to me didn’t seem to mind. I was taken to the delivery room with the tub because I had requested to labor in water.

Matt with Melissa, laboring

The nurses knew how I felt about my doctor, that I was worried about him wanting to intervene to speed things up or try to push pain medication on me. After my first exam, the nurses asked him to go back to work and they would call him when the baby crowned. I was hooked up to the fetal monitor, supposedly for a 10-minute strip. With each contraction, Baby’s heart rate was dropping, so they kept me hooked up to keep on eye on it. I tried a lot of different positions to move Baby around, and eventually something worked. The tub was filled, but I was never able to get into it because I was on the monitor. I was still getting sick, so they put me on an IV to replenish all the fluids I had lost. Because my water had broken more than 12 hours previously, they also put me on antibiotics. When I arrived and had my first exam, I was 5 cm dilated. I focused a lot on relaxing and pretty much “played dead” most of the time. Keeping my eyes closed, keeping my breathing deep and regular, and staying quiet was the key for me. Supposedly I progressed really quickly for a first baby. By 2pm, I was complete and ready to push. I wanted to push when I felt the need and not have anyone tell me when. The pain was so much more tolerable by this point and each push was a relief. I hadn’t slept for over a day and didn’t have any food in me, so I was pretty exhausted. I pushed for two hours, which were probably the most tiring two hours I have ever experienced.

Meeting our son, “Rhino”

At 4:06 pm our son was born. I tore a little bit, but it wasn’t bad. Matt cut Rhino’s cord and then he was immediately placed on my chest to feed. He was really stuffed up with mucus and was having difficulty breathing, which made feeding really hard. They tried to unclog him with the aspirator, but it wasn’t enough. They suctioned him out with tubes, which helped him out a lot. I had some complications with the afterbirth and was on the table for another hour trying to get everything to detach. They kept talking of sending me in for surgery, which would have been really disappointing. To go through all that I had with no pain medication to have a natural birth, I really didn’t want to be put under for surgery. I prayed and pushed and, against all expectations of the nurses and doctor, at 5 finally I was finished. Matt had spent the hour with Rhino and Jen (who was present the whole time) and Barbara was there to support me. Because Matt had been up working all night, by 7pm he passed out in the waiting room. Barbara went home and Jen stayed with me to eat.

Hospital Family Photo

The birth center was great to us. Matt and I had our own private room with two beds and Rhino was able to sleep with us the whole time. The accommodations were comfortable and the nurses were wonderful and very helpful.

Melissa and Rhino

It was the most amazing day ever and I felt so empowered, energized, and ecstatic. Rhino is so beautiful and I fell in love instantly.