Derailed

The tabs at the top of my browser should give you an idea of my daily routine in front of the computer. It should also tell you how my day is going today.

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I read my mail, I read (too many) blogs, I read Facebook. I (need to) pay my phone bill. I (wistfully) read endless recipes, deciding what to try next (clue: pies!). I read about diastasis recti and look for inspiring postpartum exercises. Often times, I buy a thing or two from my favorite online store. ;-)

And then, when all else fails, I use the Internet to do research.

At first, I thought today was going to be GREAT! Callum had another wonderful night of sleep - a full 9.5 hours straight. Granted, my blouse was soaked since I hadn't pumped or nursed for so long, and I had to get up at 5:30am, but I was still happy.

I've been hoping - nay PRAYING - that he'd start sleeping for longer stints at a time. We are nearing the end of my maternity leave, after all, and there's only so much (productive) work I can get done with a few hours of sleep.

Logan woke up about 6:30am - which is a tad early for him, but not out of the ordinary. What was out of the ordinary, however, was that he had gotten up in the middle of the night and with no whimpering or crying at all, climbed into our bed and fell asleep. We weren't sure why but chalked it up to a bad dream or something.

I got him his usual morning bottle of milk, set him up with Bob the Builder in the den and climbed back into bed with Jon and Callum to see if I could pat Callum back to sleep (since he DID get up early). About 7am we hear Logan crying - Jon was getting up and about to jump in the shower, so he yelled to the front of the house, asking what was wrong. Logan says "I made a mess!" I thought maybe he just spilled some milk.

Oh how wrong I was.

Unfortunately he had puked up what milk he had drank.

Jon stormed around the house cleaning it up and telling me that this was it with milk in a bottle. The milk nazi had returned. *sigh*

He stripped Logan down and the two of them took a quick shower.

I had just gotten Callum to sleep and was drifting off myself when I heard Jon cussing up a storm. While dressing Logan, he puked again. :( It seemed there was something more going on than just an extra gulp of milk not staying down. He was pretty upset by the whole thing as he sat, heaving over the side of the bathtub.

I've lost count of how many Aisle 5 Clean Ups and Loads of Laundry I've done so far today. I fear it's not over yet. Based on my research (see above), we're to keep Logan as hydrated as possible, but only feed him a couple of teaspoons of clear liquid every 15 minutes, slowly building up to larger amounts as he holds it down. If he vomits again, we need to start over (and with a smaller amount).

I have yet been able to get past a few tablespoons.

YAY.

So much for getting Callum's room done and knocking those pesky to-do items off my list!

Nesting, Fasting and Mothering

Hooooooo boy, where to begin?

So I'll start by saying I've become obsessed - like Obsessed with a capital "O" - this week, lurking around Craigslist.

It suddenly dawned on me that there are a few baby items we actually might need when the baby arrives (like an infant car seat *cough* Jon! *cough*) and I got the wild and crazy idea of looking on Craiglist for a few of them. Lo and behold, I got SUCKED IN. And before you know it, I literally had appointments every.single.day this week, meeting with a different random person, to check out, and pay for, more stuff.

What did I end up buying?

- Tuesday was another booster chair
- Wednesday was another baby monitor (to use at my parent's house)
- Yesterday was a couple bags of toddler clothes (they'll be for Logan first before the baby)
- And today was the cutest little rainboots you ever did see (also for Logan first)

See?

Seeeee?? :)

I've only spent about $50 so far, for all the above, so not too shabby. I have a couple other small things I want to get for the baby but haven't been able to find the right size or color or deal yet. I'll keep searching. :)

I do wonder what this says about me as a parent the second time around. Since, for this guy, I'm all about buying on the cheap, cheap, cheap! ;-) I'm still pretty choosy about quality and brands, so I think it's more about saving where possible. We still need to buy an infant car seat (a job I've assigned to Jon), and though there are plenty to find on Craigslist, I'm going to guess we'll end up buying it in a store just because.

I guess nesting has finally begun?

Other than my maniac Craiglist shopping, I also had my glucose screening test this morning. Downing 50 g of syrup in 5 minutes is NOT my idea of a good time. And definitely makes you sick and queasy when taken on an empty stomach. :( But, at least I got that out of the way. We'll see what happens once we get the results next week.

After the test, I came back home to take care of Mr. Logan. Last night, at about 3am, Logan came stumbling into our room, up to my side of the bed, and then coughed a couple of times before starting to heave. I caught him before he got near the bed and sat with him trying to contain the vomit while Jon ran to get some towels, bowls and help clean up.

Poor Logan was pretty upset from throwing up - in the past he's always had just one quick and dirty projectile vomit - but this was more like what you'd see hovering over your dorm room toilet when your roommate had too much to drink after her sorority initiation and you thought you'd be nice and hold back her hair for the night. It was swell after swell of heaving, his body laboriously trying to get out whatever was bothering him. Luckily for us, the cleanup wasn't that bad, since he seemed to mostly be puking up water and clear liquid.

While Jon cleaned up the floor in our bedroom, I carried him into the bathroom and brushed his teeth. I figured not only was he not liking the heaving his stomach was doing, but he couldn't possibly like the taste in his mouth either. That seemed to make him feel better as he perked right up after that. We gave him a bit of cough medicine (he seemed to be running a bit of a fever in addition to the cough) and put him back to bed.

When he woke up in the morning, he was still a bit off. He was pretty hot - his temp was a bit over a 100, but he felt much warmer to me. Jon watched him while I did my blood test and then took off for work when I got back to take care of him.

My dad came over for a few hours to also help watch him since I had a client call I couldn't reschedule (and, since he was over at about the same time, I snuck off to snag the rainboots afterward!). Though continuing to run a fever, Logan was actually in pretty good spirits all morning. He even took another bike ride out with my dad around the block.

However, when I got back from my errand (and to grab lunch), I noticed a rash developing on his face, arms and belly. My dad mentioned he had just started scratching and itching pretty regularly. He was also steaming up. :( And, unfortunately, started going downhill from there.

I monitored him pretty closely the rest of the afternoon and talked to his doctor. They weren't too concerned about the rash - due to the other symptoms (mainly fever) just before it - they said it was likely a "viral rash". Essentially, whatever bug he caught, was deciding to make itself known to the outside world as well. They gave me instructions for Tylenol and Benedryl - neither of which I had in the house at the time (we ran out of Children's Tylenol earlier in the day). And unfortunately, once Logan woke up from his nap, he was NOT in a state to be taken out (very sensitive, delicate and extremely clingy - crying for me incessantly all afternoon long).

I normally don't mind his sicky-clingy behavior when he's sick, but all he wanted today was to sit and/or lay in my lap - of which I no longer really have! So it got to be really uncomfortable and frustrating as he would literally try to PUSH my belly to one side and move it out of the way for a better spot to lie.

*sigh*

Luckily, by the time Jon got home, his rash was already improving significantly. He was itching much less and the little hot spots were disappearing to the point that Jon really didn't see much of it at all. He was still running a decent fever (it had crept up to 102) but seemed to be in better spirits at least. We got some more Tylenol and Benedryl in him and relaxed on the couches with him until it was time for bed.

I'm really hoping whatever bug he caught has run its course and he'll be on the mend tomorrow. Otherwise, we have a long night, and weekend, ahead of us! :(

A late night talk with my son

We were first woken up by our sickly diabetic cat puking up all over our bedspread at 4:00am in the morning. Lovely, isn't it?

After changing the bedspread and cleaning up the floor and Logan's tent (which was on the floor near my side of the bed, where I essentially threw Sanka the minute I heard her gagging on top of me), we settled back into our deep sleep - only to then be woken by little Logan next.

*sigh*

Jon covered the first shift - feeding him a bottle and putting him back to bed pretty quickly. But at 5:00am, he woke up crying again and wasn't able to fall back to sleep himself. So, I took this shift, and went in to pick him up and console him. I didn't arm myself with a bottle because I thought, he JUST had an entire bottle of warm milk like 20 minutes ago, he couldn't possibly need any more.

Boy was I wrong. And what's more, my crying son let me know.

He kept signing "more" to me in between his sobs and then pointing to the (closed) door of his room. I asked him, more? You want more of what? And he furiously nodded "yes", tears streaming down his face.

I thought, well what could he possibly want more of? He's just tired and upset and needs to sleep, as I dismissed the signs and continued to rock and cuddle with him.

He PUSHED me away and signed "more" again, much more deliberately. I thought, well, he just had a bottle, perhaps he wants more milk? So, I asked him, are you hungry? He nods an emphatic "yes" and then signs "hungry" followed by "more" and additional head nods.

I was amazed at how much he was communicating with me, even in the most distressful situation it seemed. I called out to Jon to get me another bottle, and wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what Logan needed. He polished the bottle off and then snuggled back into my arms, totally content and singing to himself as I rocked him in the dark (and not waking up on his own in the morning until we came in to get him ready for school!).

I was still in disbelief at what had just taken place - exactly *how* much Logan was growing up and communicating on his own. It's truly amazing.

And, who knew? Listening to your baby and watching for the signs is all you really need to succeed at this parenting thing.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

I've been wanting to get out and do some family outings with just the three of us, especially now that Logan is older, bigger and is starting to need more stimulation than the toys around our house.

Last weekend we had big plans to go visit the zoo but never got around to it. Yesterday, it was raining pretty much all day long, so instead of the zoo, we decided to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and give Logan a chance to check out some fishies for the first time!

We had a great time! Logan pretty much slept the entire ride over and back, so he was in a pretty good mood while at the Aquarium. Most of the exhibits are still a little too tall for him to see into on his own, so we did a lot of holding/carrying and pointing. And, when he noticed a fish swimming by, he did a lot of pointing and slamming on the glass, trying to touch or grab them. ;-) I had never really thought about it, but he was only interested in those things that actually moved.

A gigantic octopus that was suctioned to the glass right in front of him?

BORING MOM. MOVE ON.

I also hadn't thought about all of the interactive displays that the Aquarium has - but those came in really handy as well! Logan loved pushing all the buttons and watching parts of the displays light up, and he was also really interested in the Touch Pool (whether he was more interested in the water or the animals, I'm not sure).

I'm really excited to go back again soon, since I know everything will be even more interesting to him as he gets older and older!!

After our day at the Aquarium, we met up with a bunch of our friends for dinner and a friendly game of poker. We had a really nice night with everyone - and Logan enjoyed playing with all of Robert's toys, as usual. ;-)

Unfortunately, when we woke him up to go home for the night, we found he had thrown up all over himself and the crib he was in! :( We had noticed he wasn't himself most of the day (not really eating or drinking anything), but we had chalked it up to another tough teething episode rather than an upset stomach. :( So, we ended up keeping a late night last night bathing him, doing laundry and calming him back to sleep for the night.

Today, Jon's been feeling a bit under the weather himself unfortunately, so we three took it easy and spent most of the day at the mall and then lounging around at home. Jon and I took care of a few chores in between the cuddling with Logan since he's definitely been more fussy and clingy today, than usual. But, no more puking so at least that is good! ;-) and I have to say, the "extra" hour we gained from the time change came in real handy as we got a lot done for the weekend, all things considered.


ps. As always, click on the pics for more of our day trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I've also uploaded albums for the Halloween pics we took the other night, as well as the Pumpkin Patch pics I never got up a couple weeks ago....

Don't try this at home

We three stayed home sick yesterday. Jon and I are both still queasy but doing better and I figured no use infecting anyone else with the awful wave from hell. Today, however, we had to work. I dropped Logan off, giving the school instructions to call Jon today if anything went wrong, since I was going to be in an all day meeting that I couldn't get out of. mwahahahahahaha

No more than 15 min. after I dropped him off, they called Jon. Logan's running a fever (100.3) - you'll need to pick him up and take him home.

So, Jon got to babysit Logan all day today and boy was he RACING to leave the house for his D&D nerd night the minute I walked in the front door. Complaining about Logan "being super bitchy" (seriously, his words, not mine) and wanting to be held all day long. You mean, he's acting like he's sick?

OHMYGODTHEHORROR.

So, I picked up smiley little Logan and we hung out and played and had a grand ol' time tonight while Daddy took off to decompress.

And, just when I was thinking, what the hell is everyone talking about, Logan doesn't seem bitchy or fussy or sick - he starts to cough, and then choke. I pick him up, give him a couple whacks on the back and he gives me this in return.

You can see a couple of Jon's books got splashed as well. Good times.

So then I changed him and finished cleaning up the floor, and what does the little stinker go and do? He discovers this coooool water dish that is so fun to splash in Mommy, see?

Check out how big and full the water container is folks. It holds 5 gallons. Five gallons. That is a LOT of water to have fun playing in....

And, because apparently no one noticed the fish baby post (I figured I'd get at least a couple comments. C'mon people.) I guess I'll show you his other favorite face - we call this one FISH LIPS.

Who takes care of the kid when you're BOTH sick as dogs?

Friday morning, I was hustling around getting ready for work, late as usual. Jon was helping me get Logan ready, feeding him in bed. When all of a sudden I heard him yell "GODDAMNIT. SHIT! FUCK! SHIT!"

You never like to hear Jon cursing angrily from the other room, especially when your baby is in his arms.

I run in to find Logan, Jon and most of the bed, SOAKED in milky puke. I told him to calm down, it's just a little milk.

J: Yeah right - he PUKED on me!!
B: Jon. It's just a little milk. He didn't even have a chance to digest it yet.
J: But it got all over my pants and on my leg. Ugggghhhh.
B: Just be thankful it wasn't a crotchful of diarrhea.

Ahhh, so goes most conversations about general baby caring, in our household these days. Guess who's the more squeamish of us two? ;-)

Anyway - I changed Logan, rushed around to finish getting ready, shoved a few Cheerios in his mouth to get something in his stomach and dropped him off at school - yelling to the teachers on my way out "oh yeah, he hasn't really eaten much today because he threw everything up and if he continues or gets worse, just give me a call", as the door slammed shut right behind me.

I'm at work for no more than 20 minutes when my cell lights up with the school's name.

SHIT.

I duck out of my meeting to answer the call and sure enough, Logan wasn't getting any better. He continued to puke up whatever they tried feeding him and was only able to keep down an ounce of milk before passing out. I told them since he was sleeping, I'd stay at work a bit longer and check in later after my next meeting. A few check ins later, he finally woke from his nap, having puked up the one ounce he had just before falling asleep. And, he had a minor temperature (99.7), so I said I'd be right there and packed up my stuff to go.

Of course, when I came to pick Logan up, he was his usual cheery smiley self, no indication of being sick whatsoever. But, I took him home anyway. I was really concerned about the lack of fluids in his system, so I gave him some Pedialyte once we got home, in small doses, every 15-30 minutes, watching him carefully in between feedings. Luckily, he didn't have any more vomiting spells and was quite content just hanging out with mom, playing with his toys or crawling around the house. You'd never know he was sick earlier that day! (I did call the doctors and they said a stomach virus has been going around)

Saturday he continued to behave just fine, other than being out of it during our early morning visit to The Little Gym. I, on the other hand, was feeling a bit crummy, and worse as the day progressed. I thought perhaps it was just a lack of sleep, since I got up early that morning and never went back to bed (like I usually do when I put Logan down for his morning nap), so I took a nap before dinner. When I woke, I wasn't feeling any better - mostly queasy and super nauseous.

We had dinner plans with the Hicksons and Jodoins at Habana Cuba that I had been waiting for all week, so I was determined to go, dismissing my uneasiness for hunger instead. Unfortunately, I couldn't have been more wrong. Literally, the minute my food was set in front of me, a WAVE washed over my entire body. Not the good, this is an awesome killer wave let's ride it all the way back to the shore type of wave. No, it was the bad, you are SICK and I'm taking over your entire body with SICKNESS so you might as well wish you were dead type of wave.

I broke out into an unbelievable rapid sweat and chills with a feeling that I needed to puke RIGHT NOW. I stumbled to the bathroom, sat on a chair with my head between my legs for about 20 minutes before finally feeling better. When I got back to the table, I had a couple bites of dinner only to get that same wave of nausea wash over me again. We were getting ready to leave soon so I just stuck it out, looking lame with my head between my legs, taking deep breaths and watching the sweat trickle down my chest.

I vaguely remember someone (Jenn?) commenting that I could be pregnant.

SHE BETTER NOT BE Jon said.

Thanks babe.

Jon put me to bed with some saltines and Gatorade and I stayed there, curled up in a little ball moaning all night long, switching between cold sweats, chills and shakes to burning up super hot get this smothering blanket off of me. But, without a fever or any abnormal temperature at all. Jon, unfortunately, caught whatever bug Logan and I have, in the middle of the night as well. So, the three of us (and mostly Jon and I it seems!) have been in pretty sad shape all day today, fighting nausea, diarrhea, achiness, headaches (probably from the lack of food), you name it. No fun.

And, what has been MOST challenging about this more than the illness itself, is the caring for Logan while we're both under the weather. I think if just one of us was feeling a little uneasy and not well, it'd be another thing entirely. But, when the two of us are completely incapacitated like we have been last night and today, it's all we can do to make a bottle, shove it in his mouth, and pray he gobbles it down and falls right back to sleep.

It's weekends like these where I'm just starting to realize what the impact of having a child in your house will do - once he gets sick, we get sick. Once one of us gets sick, the kid gets sick. It's a never-ending vicious cycle.

Logan actually did really well today, all things considered. Mostly he's just been bored because we've been trying to entertain him in bed since the two of us haven't left the bedroom save to feed the dogs/cats and do a Gatorade/Pepto Bismol run. And you wonder why the kid who just learned how to crawl is bored when all he can see are the tempting cool things that are all on the ground that he could be putting in his mouth instead. He's also been more cranky than usual (what a surprise, he's sick!) and started having a few diarrhea diapers which Jon had the luck of discovering at 5:30 early this morning, right about when he was starting to really get sick himself.

Let's just say I heard a few more expletives coming from Logan's room early this morning in my achy nauseous woozy haze. And, later found dried poop smeared all over the changing pad reminding me why maybe he was muttering those expletives so early in the morning.

When he's not groaning in the bed next to me, Jon has been living in the bathroom most of the day, poor thing. We've both been guzzling down Gatorade and nothing else, which I'm sure is going to wreak havoc on my diet. But, I'm finally feeling a tad bit better, and looking at the clock, it took about 24 hrs before I could get anything "substantial" in my stomach (Top Ramen to the rescue!).

I guess that means Jon will be ready for some blueberry pancakes about 5:30 tomorrow morning?

I love the smell of vomit in the morning

Nothing says "Welcome Home Daddy" quite like projectile vomiting all over us, in bed, at 5am in the morning....volumes of it. I'm still washing all the sheets, blankets, pillows, clothes....

I know folks are wondering where I am, how Logan and I are doing, and where all the frequent blog postings are.... here's a quick update from the week (things are fine, just a little hectic with my hands full while Jon was gone):

Little Logan is still a bit under the weather but we're not quite sure what with. It seems like he's got a little bug with all the throw up (the other morning he spewed a nice puddle of it while half asleep, through his crib railings and onto the floor and rug beneath) and explosive diarrhea I've been cleaning up. Or, maybe it's his way of saying he missed Daddy this week? I know I did.

The upside is, after dousing us with milky puke this morning, he then smiled and laughed and gurgled and coo'd like nothing was wrong at all, so at least he's in his usual charming good mood while being sick. :)

I ended up taking Logan to the dermatologist since the rash on his face got a lot worse - turns out he's got seborrheic dermatitis (they think the heat wave we had this past week set it off). Can't say I'm entirely surprised given he's had skin issues since birth. So we now have a(nother) new lotion to put on his face. I applied some last night and it's already 100% better this morning. Cool.

We had skipped swim class on Tuesday night with all that was going on, but I took Logan on Thursday and we had a great time. We're still practicing getting our faces wet, and now learning how to turn around and grab for the side after falling in (from a sitting position on the edge of the pool). We also just started the motions of turning over from back to tummy to back again (to get them used to turning and floating on their back if they fall in). Great, practical stuff in my opinion, and I'm really glad we have him going to the classes.

I lost 2lbs from my first week on weight watchers. Let's hope the trend continues!

Twyla is still on the roof. I'm getting desperate and about to plead with our neighbor, the fireman, to help get her down since it's going on a week now....!!! We'll try to take another stab at getting her down this weekend, now that Jon's home to help.

Sanka has diabetes. Her sugar levels are through the roof. I visited the vet yesterday and received a tutorial on how to give her insulin shots, which we'll start on Monday. Twice a day. We have special food to give her as well. We have to take her in after a few days to measure her glucose and see if the dosage is right or needs some adjusting.

Feels like life just got a little more complicated. But, I know we can handle it.

Yes we can.