Posts Tagged ‘pediatrician’
Busy afternoon today. I’m dropping Lucas off at preschool at 12:30, and I have lots of stuff to bring with me. I’m taking four empty milk jugs to contribute to the construction of the school’s igloo, and I also washed some dress-up clothes as part of their winter cleaning. While Luke’s in school, I think that I’m going to take Meredith over to the local yarn store that a friend told me about yesterday. (Lord help my wallet, LOL!) Then, after preschool, Lucas has a quick checkup at the pediatrician’s office. Sometime today, I also have to make a grocery list and work on the finishing touches for this town calendar. And I’m doing laundry ~ and I’d also like to relax and do some knitting tonight, if possible. Such a busy time of year!
Yesterday afternoon, I took the kids over to our town’s train station to help decorate for Santa’s arrival this Saturday. Lucas was *so* excited about the model train that’s there. He also saw Santa’s chair sitting in the corner and asked me, “How tall is Santa?” It was super cute. The tree that they chose for the station is so beautiful and full and smells incredible. Lucas is contributing his glittery bell ornament that he made during moms’ group on Tuesday. :) I helped string lights on the outside of the depot, and while we were doing that, we saw an eagle flying overhead! Yesterday was a great day for decorating because it was actually pretty warm ~ in the 40s and low 50s! I can’t wait to take some pictures on Saturday. It’ll be interesting to see whether Meredith enjoys Santa or is afraid of him! Oh, and Santa will arrive on one of the town’s fire trucks!
Well, I’d better go ~ the laundry probably needs to be switched around. This week has gone by *so* fast ~ how did it get to be Thursday?
Here’s a question for all of you parents out there. Our pediatrician has told us, for both of our children, that when they turn two years old, we can give them any kind of milk that we choose. In other words, they don’t have to drink solely whole milk anymore. She said that if *we* drink skim milk, they can drink that, too. But I’ve heard conflicting advice from other pediatricians, who say that kids should keep drinking whole milk because they need the fat for development. We actually got into a big discussion about this topic in my parenting e-mail group. I’m just curious what you parents out there have been told. My husband thinks that we should continue buying the kids whole milk (and skim milk for us), and I think that we’ll probably go that route. But it’s just funny how doctors can give such different advice!
Speaking about parenthood … yesterday, I volunteered at our church to help take care of the infants during the service. One little boy (who was about six months old) cried pretty much the entire time, and I felt *so* badly for him. You could tell that he missed his parents, and he was also teething (he kept chewing on his fingers, on toys, etc.). I searched in his parents’ diaper bag to see whether I could find anything that might make him happy (some snacks did!), but when I looked into their diaper bag, I felt a bit of nostalgia. They had packed *everything* they would possibly need: teething tablets, several pacifiers, a change of clothing (with matching hat), diapers (of course), a bottle and formula (of course), acetaminophen and ibuprofen, various toys, a blanket, extra shoes and socks, a changing pad … you get the idea. They were *totally* prepared! And I found myself thinking, “Gosh, it seems *so* long ago when *I* carried around all of that stuff!” I remember the days of feeling sad when the kids would cry and it was *so* difficult to figure out what was wrong. I still find myself rocking back and forth sometimes, even though I no longer have a newborn to hold! :) I heard this baby’s parents talking about the challenges of getting him to fall asleep on his own and how they read about the Ferber Method. Right then, the baby spit up on the father’s dress shirt, and it made me smile. Gosh, I remember those days ~ when, at the end of the day, my clothes were covered with everything imaginable! :) Even though our children are still very young, it seems like *so* long ago that we went through all of that. I miss it a little bit, but in other ways I’m very glad to be in this stage, too. There are challenges with every age, though! I still kind of see Meredith as a baby, but she’s totally not. She just turned two! I guess that I just found myself feeling a bit nostalgic yesterday!
She had her routine two-year checkup this morning and did just great. Other than a lingering cold and cough (which seems to be getting better, slowly), the doctor said that she looks healthy and is growing wonderfully! She now weighs 30 pounds, stands 35 inches tall, and has a head circumference of 50 centimeters. Both Lucas and Meredith received their flu shots today, and neither one even made a sound! I was *so* surprised … what brave kids! Meredith goes back in one month for the second part of hers, and then of course she will go back at the end of April for her two and a half-year appointment. Soon, I’ll take her to the hospital (or to a lab) for some blood work to check her iron level (to make sure that she’s not anemic). Lucas had the same thing done when he turned two ~ it’s a regular test. I’m *so* happy to know that our little girl is doing just fine and growing as she should! (See the cute pony on her shirt? We should take her shopping for english saddles, LOL!) I just can’t believe that she’s now two. It’s amazing to think about how much she has changed since she was born.
My parents are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary today! Back on August 4, 1973, they tied the knot in a little church in Nashville, IN ~ the same town where Jeff and I got married in June 2000. They honeymooned in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN, and today they’re jetting off to Las Vegas for a fantastic anniversary vacation. I hope that they take *lots* of pictures, because I can’t wait to see them! They’re going to visit with our cousin Jo, who lives in Boulder City, and they’re also going to see the Grand Canyon ~ including stepping out onto the glass Skywalk on the canyon’s west side. I sure hope that they have safe travels and enjoy themselves. Thirty-five years is quite a milestone!
This morning, I put Meredith onto one of our kitchen island stools in order to feed her breakfast. And that’s when I noticed a bull’s eye-looking rash on her left upper arm. CRAP. I just couldn’t believe it. First Jeff, then Lucas, and now Meredith! I called her doctor’s office immediately and took her in for a checkup. Actually, the pediatrician said that in order to diagnose Lyme Disease, the rash has to be a certain diameter. She drew a circle around Meri’s bite and said that if it gets any bigger, we should bring her back in. Her temperature this morning was 99 degrees, and she isn’t acting like Lucas was when he had it. We’re going to keep a close eye on her. When we got to the doctor’s office, it didn’t look so much like a bull’s eye anymore. So I don’t know. Hopefully it’ll be good news, but we just have to wait and see what happens. Meredith was *not* happy about being examined. She clung to me for dear life and cried a lot. But for one brief moment, she did play with the faucets in the exam room. LOL! :)
This week is going to be *very* busy. Today, I have to work on some last-minute stories for the newspaper that I do freelance work for. I’m also taking meals over to two members of our moms’ group. We need to get going with making a hotel reservation for our upcoming Montreal vacation. I have a birthday gift to purchase and wrap. I need to prepare a meal and get our house clean for some moms’ group friends who are coming over for brunch on Thursday. Saturday is our town’s historic celebration, and I’ve volunteered to make some Native American-themed dishes for that event and also for our town’s farmers’ market on Friday. Oh man … I’m tired just thinking about everything!
I don’t have much on my calendar for this upcoming week, but I have a *ton* of things on my to-do list. Among them are making a dentist’s appointment, rescheduling my doctor’s checkup, scheduling my yearly OB/GYN checkup, making a follow-up appointment for Lucas’s Lyme Disease at the pediatrician’s office, etc. I *dread* making appointments and will be *overjoyed* when they’re all done and over with.
I also need to finish this freelance assignment by the end of the day tomorrow. After that, I’m going to take the kids to our town’s beach. It might be kind of difficult because the beach is *so* rocky at first (you have to walk a bit of a distance to get past the rocky area). It’s not stroller-friendly at all (perhaps a Bugaboo stroller would work!), but maybe we’ll be able to navigate OK. I’ll be worried about watching the two of them by myself while we’re so close to the water, but since it’s not crowded there, it’ll hopefully be easier. I’d also like to take them to this really great area called the Ooms Conservation Area. It’s 180 acres, and one of Jeff’s coworkers told me that it’s “all the rage” now. The kids would get a wonderful chance to run around and enjoy the fresh air, and I might be able to snap some good photographs.
I can’t get over how *nice* our weather is today! It rained for a while, and I turned off our air conditioning because it’s *so* breezy outside. When the wind blows, I can hear the trees in our front yard creaking. I like to think that they’re talking to each other. :) Jeff took Luke and Meri to church this morning and then stopped by our friends’ house to play for a while, and I’m working hard on this freelance assignment. It’s nice to have some time *alone* here at home, in the peace and quiet! (Well, there’s the noise of the trees, of course, and I can also hear birds chirping and cars driving down our road.) Living out in the country just rocks.
By the way, I’m working on a little something new right now. A new endeavor, I guess you could say. Sorry to be so vague, but I’m *very* excited about it and can’t *wait* to tell you when I get everything all set up! It might take a while, though. I hope that it’ll be a success, but I’ll just have to wait and see. (Ahh, don’t you just love suspense?)
I have a good reason for not blogging over the weekend. Our son was diagnosed today with Lyme Disease.
Last night when I helped him change into a new pair of Pull-Ups, I noticed a circular red splotch on his lower right leg. It wasn’t consistent with pictures that I’d seen on the Internet of the “bull’s-eye” formation that’s characteristic of Lyme Disease, but I just had a dreaded feeling that’s what it was.
So last night, Lucas started feeling miserable again. We gave him a half teaspoon of liquid Claritin (like the pediatrician suggested) and then snuggled with him on the futon in our bonus room. He fell asleep almost instantly. (Boy, I wish that I’d known about that medicine when our kids were newborns! LOL!) Anyway, after a while he started shivering because of his fever. We took his temperature (underneath his arm), and it was 102. So around 10 p.m., we gave the pediatrician’s office a call and asked for the doctor on call to give us a call back. We thought that we’d have to take him to the E.R. in order to lower his fever. Well, no one called us back. It was about an hour later ~ 11 p.m. ~ and still no call. We were pretty upset. I slept with Lucas last night in order to keep an eye on him, and he stirred quite a few times.
So this morning, I was so tired from not sleeping much last night ~ and Lucas kept asking me random questions while I was still lying on the futon, half asleep. In my sleepy state, I just kept mumbling, “Uh huh. OK.” He ran back down the hallway, and after a few seconds, he came back in and shouted, “Mommy! Meredith just choked in her crib!” I shot straight up and dashed into her room. Sure enough, she had thrown up all over her crib. :( Not to be gross, but it looked like cat food. (She had gotten a hold of a handful of cat food yesterday.) But when I got her up out of her crib, she kind of stumbled around and acted like she was going to get sick again. And indeed, she spit up all over the carpet. :(
I took them downstairs, gave them breakfast, and then put in the movie “Cars.” They both snuggled underneath a blanket on the living room couch (which they never do). Meredith’s cheeks are all red, and she’s acting exhausted. You can see in her eyes that she’s miserable, and now I’m thinking that maybe it’s a virus. She fell asleep for a little while, and then she woke up and then Lucas fell asleep. I took Meredith up for her nap just a while ago, and Lucas is still sleeping. I hope they both get some good rest.
I called our doctor’s office this morning to complain about no one calling us back last night. Their response was, “Oh, if that happens again, just call back after 20 minutes.” The doctor actually seemed to rush me through the phone call this morning, too. I didn’t even get a chance to tell her that Lucas has a bit of a rash behind his right ear. All she said was, “Just make an appointment for Meredith” and then quickly transferred me over to the receptionist while I was in mid sentence! I realize that she can’t diagnose anything without seeing Meredith in person. But I just don’t like being rushed like that. I’m almost tempted to find a different pediatrician.
So I’m going to keep an eye on both kids today and see how it goes. I might be calling tomorrow morning to see whether they can take a look at both of them at once. Thanks for your good thoughts, guys!
I woke up this morning to a nice phone call from one of my moms’ group mentors. We talked for quite a while. She calls every so often to check on me and to see how I’m doing, and that means so much to me. What a sweet, kind, and thoughtful thing to do. She also told me that she prays about my anxiety, and it must be working because I really feel that things have been better lately. Of course, tomorrow might be horrible anxiety-wise ~ there’s no way of knowing, really. But I’m awfully proud of myself for the social things that I’ve been doing lately. We had a nice anniversary evening last night … a yummy dinner of lasagna, yeast rolls, veggies, and shortbread cookies drizzled with chocolate for dessert. And Jeff gave me such a gorgeous pair of earrings! (Bronze, to match the eighth anniversary “theme.”) Awesome!!!
I’m nervous today about Lucas, though, and his ear infection. The poor guy really isn’t feeling good. I scheduled an appointment with his pediatrician at 2:15 this afternoon, so we’ll know more then. He called out in the middle of the night last night, and I realized that he was dreaming. He said something about Meredith stealing his orange car! LOL! :) So he wanted me to go downstairs and get it for him. I snuggled in bed with him after that. He hasn’t really moved from our bonus room so far today. He’s currently on the futon watching “Dora.” You can just see in his face that he’s not feeling well. He is eating toast and a banana for breakfast, though, so that’s good. I’m sure the pediatrician will prescribe an antibiotic for him. I just hope that he feels better soon.
Me? I feel pretty overwhelmed today. Just by everything that needs to get done. I’m not sure how many e-mails are in my inbox at the moment, but most of them involve something that I need to take care of. And then, there’s cleaning ~ oh, I’m tired of cleaning. I’m trying to get our house in tip-top shape for the Fourth of July cookout that we’re having on the 28th ~ and my sophomore year college roommate will be staying with us for a few days. It’s just so hard keeping everything clean with two toddlers running about. Plus, I tend to bite off more than I can chew. I agree to doing so much stuff because I want to do it and have such idealistic thoughts about getting it all finished ~ but then I feel stressed when it doesn’t happen. :( I guess that I need to make a list of priorities for today ~ things that absolutely have to get done ~ and just go from there. And as far as cleaning, I should just tackle one room at a time and not think about the entire house all at once. I need to go easier on myself, but that’s hard for me to do sometimes. I feel like I just woke up a few minutes ago, yet it’s already 11 a.m.! How did that happen?!? I also feel a bit “blah” because it’s “that time of the month” for me. What I want to do today is lounge around in a comfy chair outside with a cool, frosty drink and a new magazine while watching the kids run around and play and have fun.
Well, something else cheered me up this morning ~ a big pink box from my friend Shannon arrived! Yay! Inside were all kinds of neat treats, both for me and the kids. (As you can see in the photo, the kids have scribbled all over our coffee tables! LOL!) Can’t wait to use them! Thank you! :)
