With Melissa back to work, we have play dates with Elle & Dave. Dave cracks me up, he sounds like a stay-at-home mom and has all the questions we do - How do you keep a toddler busy? Why won't she nap longer than an hour? Dave & I don't vent about spouses, I'll save that for dinner dates with Melissa :)
Speaking of venting, Melissa & I met up for an (overdue) happy hour, putting Patrick on Daddy-duty.
What does Daddy-duty look like? Finley eats Oreos & drinks Sprite while wearing one shoe. Hadley sits around with no pants and an unbuttoned onesie. And both...
...were glued to the TV.
Hadley needs a passport - lucky girl is going on spring break! Hadley balanced well on the stool and turned.it.on for the photographer. She saw the camera and put on smile after smile after smile. Unfortunately, there's a rule that requires a straight face in passport photos. We finally surprised her and caught the cutest passport picture ever taken.
Hadley had her 4-month check up; she waited patiently for Dr. Myhre to arrive...
...and was shocked to learn how big she is! Hadley is 15lb 3oz (81%) and 24.21 inches (45%), she beats baby-Finley by more than a pound!
Hadley checked out well! She's had a cough, but Dr. Myhre is sure it's a fall cold. My biggest concern was her head; at Finley's 4-month appointment we were referred to Mayo for a helmet. There is a slight flatness on her back-left side, but not enough for a referral...yet. We will reevaluate in two months. I am diligent about keeping her off that side and she's upright more, so (fingers crossed) it'll round out on it's own. Dr. Myhre gave us permission to start rice cereal / baby food - I can't believe she's already old enough! We'll try it after this snotty cold passes.
Hadley can grasp and pull hanging toys to her mouth, she's close to rolling and soon gravity will pull her over. I'm not ready for a mobile baby, I like the stationary kind!
Here's a big brother that didn't nap...sooo tired, he should've listened to mom.
Once a year I'm tempted to put orange fencing around our yard and drink, but instead we went to the Homecoming Parade. When I told Finley we'd be going, he wondered if he'd be dressed as a puppy riding behind the golf cart, not this time. But Grandpa was in the parade - he drove the Chancellor...actually, he drove the chancellor's candy while the chancellor walked nearby.
Hadley was there too!
Finley had fun and collected a ton of candy. The best part? He fist-pumped enough and got the firetruck to pull it's horn - his face was priceless!
Our evening at the ER wasn't entirely scary - it was homecoming after all! Grandpa declared himself "hallway monitor" and reported back anything interesting. And sure enough, over-served college kids started dropping in. Finley was an awesome big brother - he enjoyed the attention and was a good listener when he needed to be. He also provided some comic relief...Finley, what color is Daddy's hair? Brown. Finley, what color is Grandpa's hair? No more hair! It felt good to laugh.
If you're my FB friend, you know what happened Saturday, here goes... Saturday afternoon Hadley ran a fever of 101.4, I called Urgent Care to see if we should come in. Since she's an infant, they paged the on-call pediatrician. With Hadley's cold and recent vaccinations, the pedi encouraged Tylenol and to wait it out. As Hadley was resting, her cheeks were getting redder and redder. With Heidi's encouragement, I woke her to take her temp - it was 105! We didn't wait to see how high it went, we left for the ER. Since I easily panic / freeze, Patrick sat in back to monitor her and I drove. Hadley was lethargic and no longer focusing. Patrick almost had me pull over to call 911, as we passed the fire station we debated stopping - she was really sick. We decided to keep going - I ran red lights and passed cars on city streets, it was the longest.drive.ever. Finley could sense the seriousness and was such a good boy.
We arrived at the ER and her fever was coming down - in hindsight, I think it spiked in the car when she seemed her worst. Over the next 5ish hours, poor Hadley was poked, prodded and we did a lot of waiting. At one point, we could see the redness returning, her fever had crept back up to 104-105. The testing included blood work (arms were poked), urine culture (catheter) and a chest x-ray. I do not do well in these situations - I assume the worst and almost check-out. At one point I was watching my mom & Patrick comfort her during the blood work - finally it hit me, what the hell was I doing? MY poor baby was crying and I sat across the room afraid to breathe....nice. What did she need? Me. Her mom. I stepped it up and comforted her. It's so hard to watch your baby hurt.
What did the testing reveal? An elevated white blood cell count (a sign of infection somewhere) and eliminated a few things - her lungs were clear, no bladder infection and ears/throat looked fine. Since Tylenol was controlling the fever, the doctor felt we didn't need to put her through more intensive testing. Hadley received a shot of antibiotics and we were discharged with a plan to follow-up with the pediatrics department today.
Finley had gone home with Grandpa earlier, so we took home our sick baby...when you worry like me, this is scary. I know Hadley slept well, I was up 10-12 times to check on her. I heard her stirr around 3:30, so I woke her for more Tylenol.
This morning we met with Dr. Gilmartin (today's on-call pediatrician), he was great. Dr. Gilmartin looked over Hadley's lab work (which will continue to culture for another 24-36 hours before it's declared 'clear'), rechecked her ears/throat/lungs and thought she looked good. Hadley hadn't had Tylenol since 3:30 a.m. and wasn't running a fever (yeah!). The pediatrician feels it's viral - a new virus starting on top of her old cold. It could be a long cold/flu season.
So, now what? We continue to watch and wait, we know when to come back, we know what to treat on our own. The worrier-in-me hates the diagnosis of "it's viral". I want to know what it was, but we probably won't. Hadley is napping and I just touched her cool forehead - thank God. I take for granted too much.
Today we rest. Hadley has been sleepy, as her body fights hard to kick this virus. Finley & Patrick have been enjoying our summer-like weather cleaning up outside. Finley built his very own ramp!
Our evening at the ER wasn't entirely scary - it was homecoming after all! Grandpa declared himself "hallway monitor" and reported back anything interesting. And sure enough, over-served college kids started dropping in. Finley was an awesome big brother - he enjoyed the attention and was a good listener when he needed to be. He also provided some comic relief...Finley, what color is Daddy's hair? Brown. Finley, what color is Grandpa's hair? No more hair! It felt good to laugh.
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