Ah Choo!

"Mommy, can't you see that I do NOT feel well?!?!"


"Ah choo!"

"Okay, enough is enough Mommy!"

These pictures were taken on June 8th, 2010.

Dear Sophia,

My heart aches for you. Nothing as small as you are now should ever feel as miserable as you must feel. I just wonder what you are thinking. We cannot even attempt to explain that this is (hopefully) only a cold that your body must fight on its own. I just hope you feel the love that surrounds you. If only you knew we would have kept you healthy and well if we had our way. Of course, perhaps I should have kept you home and away from any germs until you were at least 3 months of age. I never dreamed you would catch a cold before your 2 month birthday, especially since you were born in the spring!

Thank goodness I learned that swaddling you before placing you in the swing was a life saver. You slept the longest you have slept so far in that swing last night (and then again tonight). 6 hours! I consider that "sleeping through the night" even though the time began at 8:00 p.m. and ended at 2:00 a.m. 6 hours while your nose was stuffed up! Now that is impressive!

Get well soon baby girl! I want to see more and more of my Sophia smiles!

I love you!

Mommy

Tummy Time

I'm posting these pics just for you hubby! All three of your girls love you and miss you very much! Five if you count the cats.

These pictures were taken on June 7th, 2010.

Sophia's First Cold

I think Sophia has a cold, thanks to her big sister! I am hoping it is nothing more serious than a cold (as Annabelle sounds awful with her cough). Sophia sounds stuffed up in her nose when she breathes, bless her heart! And, she has been fighting to go to sleep over the last hour, crying every 5 minutes or less when I'm not holding her.

Annabelle wasn't sick at all until her very first birthday. She was literally sick for the first time on her first birthday. So, I wasn't expecting Sophia to develop a cold before she is even 2 months old, especially since it is June and cold and flu season are behind us now.

Poor Sophia! I know she's miserable. It must be awful to not understand why you all the sudden cannot breathe.

I'm afraid it is going to be a rough night for both of us.

Please say a little prayer that she'll recover quickly and that this will not develop into anything more serious!

My Saving Grace

Hubby out of town all week.

A bad case of eczema for one little girl with one tube of steroid cream to administer 3 times daily (for a possible skin infection) and another tube to administer 2 times daily (to tame the eczema) along with the application of Eucerin cream as much as possible. Do you see her poor legs? Can anyone guess how long it takes to lube up a toddler all over with Eucerin and apply steroid cream? 15 minutes if she's cooperating the entire time! That is just another hour and 15 minutes out of my already crunched for time day (around the nursing every 2 hours, diaper changes, tee tee wipes, toddler meals, snacks and drinks, clothes washing, and the list goes on and on and on).

The above picture was taken to document Annabelle's first shower because the doctor recommended we keep baths to a minimum (5 minutes at the most) to help keep the eczema from flaring up again and again. Ha! That is probably hard to do with any toddler much less my Annabelle.

A viral infection with an awful croupy cough for the same three and a half year old. At least we hope it is a viral infection as the diagnosis for strep is still on the table until 48 hours from 10:00 a.m. on Saturday.

And an awful rash caused by the viral infection because my poor child has skin and allergy issues and her body overreacts to illnesses. Annabelle is rarely ever sick, but this will be the third time her body has reacted with a nasty itchy rash. The rash started earlier in the week, and the doctor and I both thought it was just a flare up of eczema on her face. I should have known better since she has not had eczema on her face since she was a baby. But then it spread to the rest of her body in tiny little bumps. And then it flared up to look much like a sunburn on Friday.

We made a special visit to the doctor's office on Saturday (surcharge for that I assume) because she woke up looking like the above. And, that was after we gave her a dose of Benadryl the night before. I am so glad that hubby took the above picture on Saturday at the Peachtree Dekalb Airport's Air Show because this one time I failed to get a picture, and she is finally starting to look a lot better.

Thank goodness we have already met our deductible for the year because I don't feel so bad taking my children to the doctor for every little thing. Thank you Sophia!!! Did you feel the sarcasm?

And a CRAZY, weird child when doped up on Zyrtec.

But, this folks, this is my saving grace for the week!

Sophia normally will only sleep during the day when snuggled up against me in the Baby Bjorn. But, I decided to try something new on Friday. I swaddled her and then placed her in the swing on the highest setting. She normally hates the swing, but this time it worked! She will sleep for 2-3 hours straight in the swing when she is swaddled.

Thank you Dr. Harvey Karp (The Happiest Baby on the Block)! You are a genius!

The Wrong Hour

"I think I woke up at the wrong hour." - Annabelle

She said this first for hubby this weekend while the two of them were out shopping, and Sophia and I were out shopping separately.

Peace and quiet for Mommy because Sophia actually slept in the car seat, and she slept almost the entire time we were shopping (until she realized she was hungry, of course). I even decided to disappoint myself by trying on a bathing suit at Target by placing Sophia on a burp cloth on the dressing room floor asleep (because she was in the Baby Bjorn at this point) so I could remind myself that I just had a baby 6 weeks ago and my belly is stretched and displays those awful dark lines from my belly button down, along with a dark colored belly button. Sigh.

And, that was a run on sentence if I have ever seen one! And, that was also enough about me. Just not looking forward to "bathing suit season." I am even considering joining a gym to help remove the flab so I can look like an albino hottie again. Insert many laughs at the "hottie" part!

Anyhow, hubby said, "You woke up at the wrong hour? What are you? An eighty-five year old woman?"

She's used this phrase several times this week since then, and she's used it properly every time.

Potty Training 350

Because I am crazy and apparently don't think I already have enough clothes to wash, dry and fold among my three children or I think I need a little less sleep every evening, I mentioned to Annabelle this morning that perhaps she could stop wearing a diaper to bed and instead wear her big girl panties to bed. She has kept her diaper dry over the last week, so I figured it was about time.

Of course, you don't mention anything to Annabelle unless you are prepared to move forward. Because if you change your mind, it is all drama on her end! Drama, drama, drama! She broke down into tears this evening when I told her that perhaps we should wait.

I had plans to buy another waterproof mattress pad and set of twin sheets before moving forward because I wanted to put another layer of each on her bed. That way, if she wets the bed at night, I don't have to worry with changing the sheets out in the middle of the night. Instead, I can just strip the bed of the first layer and then hope for the best!

Well, Miss Independent was having none of that! She did not want to wait! So tonight is the first night that we purposely did not put a diaper on Annabelle for bedtime.

As I suspected, she did take advantage of her freedom to go potty on her own during the night as she opened her door and left her bedroom within minutes of me tucking her in (her pig flashlight in hand). And then again two more times within the next 30 minutes. Hubby got to deal with those last two though as I was trying to rock Sophia to sleep.

Wish us luck! Hopefully this will go smoothly and Annabelle will be one step closer to leaving hubby and I behind one day to go to college and get married. She's growing up way too fast!

Updates to original blog posting:

11:40 p.m. Annabelle woke up to go tee tee. She didn't seem too happy about it as she was all squinty eyed, and she fussed when she climbed back into bed because she was tired. And, she busted me watching television! I wonder if she's always wondered what we do after she goes to bed. Poor child gets to watch very, very little television (unless I'm sick in my first trimester or having labor contractions in my third trimester or I'm just having a very bad day), but she busts Mommy watching television after she goes to bed. I am sure that she'll remind me of this in the morning.

08:50 a.m. Annabelle woke up dry!!!

Tummy for Sophia

Annabelle: Can we put Sophia back in your tummy Mommy?

Mommy: What?

Annabelle: Can we put Sophia back in your tummy?

Mommy: Why sweetheart?

Annabelle: Because she cries all the time.

[Sophia was not even crying when she said this].

Mommy: Aaawww. You don't want to do that! You love your baby sister!