Sick Babies

Mommy's been sick with a sinus infection for over a week now. It finally just feels like a cold which is a huge improvement. On Thursday night, while trying to fall asleep breathing through my mouth even after "nettying", tossing and turning and being awakened by someone else's snoring in my bed, putting in one ear plug to try to make things better, I was then awakened by another person snoring, this time outside my bedroom door. I get up to confirm it was Neko wheezing away. I must have startled him awake because next thing you know he was coughing up a storm in the classic croup styleand making that high pitched "stridor" sound they warn you about so I wake up Trav and blast the shower while putting a call into the doctor at 12:45. Between the steamy shower and walking outside in the cold air we finally got his breathing to settle and he went back to sleep. On Friday we went to the doc and she confirmed croup and prescribed prednisone and also diagnosed an ear infection (and teething). She gave another scrip for amox but said we didn't necessarily need to fill it if he seemed to be handling it well, which he was. Friday night was a rough one. First, we had to cancel our evening plans to bring the kids to my parents' house and go to Trav's Jiu Jitsu Christmas Party. Bummer. We NEVER go out. But between my feeling like crap and Neko's being sick, it was the best bet. Chinese food and Elf were our alternate plans. We went to bed around ten and then by 11:30 Neko was up, rebinked, up, rebinked, up, screaming his head off, holy cow!!! Now the tricky thing is that he's been on and off screaming his head off in the night for awhile now. Sometimes we think it's just his "pattern" but now I begin to wonder how long his ear has been infected and if it's been teething (Keller never really "teethed"--he just got cranky so we don't really know what teething looks and sounds like...) But anyway. Eventually, Trav got him to calm down and slept with him on his chest on the couch and I got a nice little stretch of uninterrupted sleep (4-5 hours? May not sound like much but between being sick and awake because of that and then add a sick baby, not much sleep going on...) So by mid-day Saturday, Keller was getting a raspy voice and his croupy cough reared it's head during nap. Lovely. Saturday night, 12:30, Travis on the couch with Neko again, Keller begins wheezing so loudly from his crib. Stridor again. In the shower with him, sounds horrible, call the doc, go outside for a few, inside, still no good, thinking about ER, doc calls back and is calm and seems to think it's just standard croup symptoms, gives us the go-ahead to give him Neko's Prednisone and by the end of our call, Keller is breathing better. What a scary thing though. Luckily he was a little chatty as he started feeling a little better. By the time all was said and done he was thinking we were going to "play toys" but alas, he got one more story and song, some medicine, a "cuemidifier" and put to bed. Sheesh! Sunday night, Neko's up again with "the screams"...is it his ear? is it his teeth? The Hyland's Teething Tablets seemed to do the trick the first time he was up. But 2 hours later when he was up again, not so much. Nor did walking the floors, swaddling, being held...I couldn't even sit down to hold him. Finally, I gave him some Motrin and within 10 minutes he was out. What do you guys do when you have/had a baby screaming his/her head off in the night? Do you assume teething? Earache? I just don't know. I guess maybe I should call the doc again tomorrow to see if I should fill the scrip she gave me "just in case"---I just don't want to give him Amox if he's just teething...ugh! Kids!! Luckily they're both in good spirits during the day (well, maybe the bigger one is a bit "irritable" to be nice...) But better now than the weekend. We also missed my cousin's Christmas party on Saturday which was sad because she had arranged the firetruck Santa to come to the house and had already set up the gifts for the boys to be given to them:( Keller would have loved that, but, maybe next year...

So that's what we've been up to around here for the last week. Ahhh, lovely germs. 'Tis the season!

6 Months and Other Things (creative title, eh?)

On a daily basis, things happen or things are said and I think to myself, "I've gotta write that down" or "I need to put that in the blog"...and then it never happens:( That's life though I guess, especially with two little people around:) And so begins the catching up (quick while Neko sleeps and Keller is somewhat content under his play-table-blanket-fort).

Keller is doing a great job with his "potty training"--He spends all his time at home with underpants on or with no pants at all. He is excellent about getting to the potty in time for pee and he loves the part about getting a "tweet" which could be anything from a chocolate chip, a cookie, cranberries, a granola bar piece, popcorn, a lollipop, or fruit leather. He really doesn't much know the difference between healthy and not healthy so we just mix it up... Only on occasion in the past couple of weeks has there been an oops with pee. The other morning I was back in my bedroom with Neko and I hear Keller in the front/living room saying "what's in my underwear?" I knew what this meant but was in the middle of changing Neko so I stayed put. A few seconds later I hear Keller again, getting closer, what's in my underwear? what happened? and I look up and there he is in the doorway with his underpants down at his ankles having walked all the way to the bedroom that way. It was just pee so it was "cute"... We cleaned it up and all was well. Now poop is another story! He only just started doing poop on the potty 2 weeks ago and is doing pretty well. He doesn't like just sitting and "waiting" on the potty. He prefers running around and playing like a lunatic until the very last second when we see and hear a Keller running to the bathroom, usually with no pants on saying, "I'm gonna go poopy on the potty." And again, he generally makes it in time, although sometimes a little poop bit might occasionally fall out on the way to the bathroom during the mad dash (kind of funny, actually!) So, we're getting there. Still diapers when we go out, although he did go peepee on the potty at the library last week, which was great. I need to get a potty for the car now...I understand Ikea is the place to get the little cheap one? I get overwhelmed just thinking about going there, but I really should just go and get over it.

Aside from poops and pee, Keller is loving the whole Christmas/Santa thing. He had no problem sitting on his lap and taking his picture with the big guy. He's a big fan of the Muppets and John Denver Christmas album and can identify when Rolf or John "Denber" sings. He also can state that "John Denber is an honory (honorary) Muppet" like his Daddy taught him. We also just recently went to a "real" shoe store to get measured and all and he's a size 7! Oops, sorry I've been squeezing you into the 5s, little boy. Bad Mommy! They were just temporary, though...How cool was it to be able to RUN in the store!

And so Neko...What a big cutie little boy he is! Six months old next week! Where does the time go? He is a big sitter-upper guy and is officially doing the "backwards scoot" landing him in some strange places, particularly corners or under chairs! He is like a little monster grabbing anything he can and sticking it right into his slimey little drooly mouth! No wonder his brother is afraid of him! Neko can't wait for Christmas because then he can start eating big-boy food! Although I feel a little like he's ready NOW, but if Santa doesn't bring the kid food then he'll have nothing under the tree. Poor kid... What else, SLEEP. Okay, so it seems that he's now up at 5:15/5:30 for his voice/speech lessons. He wakes up (still in the kitchen, still right outside our door) and will talk and talk and talk until he starts cranking or until we can't take it anymore and one of us gets up to "bink" him. This will give us another 20-30 minutes after which Trav will usually turn him onto his belly which may then get us to 6:30 when I feed him. Then he's up in our bed until like 7:30 talking more while I lie there exhausted wishing he was sleeping so I could sleep a little more. So mornings around here are a little rough and starting earlier than I'd like. I'm hoping that solid food may help hold him over longer? Teach him to sleep later? Something, please! 7:30 is a perfectly fair wake up time, Neko, okay?? Once he gets to that point he's moving in with his brother. (unless the bassinet collapses first, which I hope isn't the case, but I think we're pushing it!)

So times up. Neko's still sleeping, but in the time I've taken to write this post, Keller has peed, yes, after all that praise, in his underwear, I've wiped and sprayed the floor. He has eaten a banana and smeared his banana hand on the lightswitch, which I've also wiped. He has banged his head on the wall behind the couch after jumping like a madman right beside me, I cuddled him, rubbed his head and told him about accidents happening when you do things like jump on the couch (whose mother lets their kid do this anyway?). And Bo Bo has been locked in the bedroom after barking ferociously at the oil man, who apparently automatically renewed our service contract although we weren't planning on using them this year. Oh well. Such is life. The post is done. I'm sort of caught up. Did I mention I'm sick today? Hope it's not strep.