illness – Page 2 – Myriad & Sundry

Thanks A Lot, Dude.

March 18, 2011 1 Comment

My first full week back at work, and I already had to take PTO and missed out on the training at Baldwin-Wallace that all my fellow Solutions Analysts were able to go to. Really?! Jameson gave me his cold earlier this week, which I believe he caught at daycare (I saw a little girl with too-rosy cheeks coughing in there!). My cold seems to be much worse than his though. He’s already starting to get better, less snotty and with just some extra coughing here and there now, probably from drainage. Mine however is in full throttle, giving me a fever and swollen neck on one side. I thought for sure I had a sinus infection. The doctor says its a virus (though I’ve never gotten a fever from a cold before). No decongestants for me cause of the nursing, so I’m on tylenol for the fever only. It’s just miserable.

Jameson stayed in pretty good spirits throughout his cold, sleeping okay up until last night when he was up every hour after his 2am feeding. Lucky for me, Brian took the monitor and I didn’t hear a peep. However, we did have one little mishap with the cold, which caused him to have to stay home on Wednesday. He vomited on Tuesday and daycare had to send him home. So Brian worked from home on Wednesday. Apparently, Jameson wasn’t too bad for him, though for some reason he just doesn’t want to nap good at home like he does at daycare!

I asked earlier this week how he naps so long (thinking that he really likes the swing or bouncer there), but lo and behold, they put him in his crib for naps, and he sleeps for hours at a time! Amazing. I had bought him a little mobile for daycare, and I am going to take it home with me this weekend to see if I can get it to work it’s magic at home too. Apparently he stares at it for a bit, sucks his pacifier, and ouuut! They must be good. Or maybe he’s sucking down more food from the bottle and he’s happier? He’s at around 4oz per bottle there.

He’s also already doing tummy time much better. I feel like so far, daycare is awesome. He loves it there, and I get to pick up a happy baby everyday. I just wish I had more time after that to hang with him. The hard part isn’t him being there, it’s bringing him home and only having a couple hours.

He looked adorable yesterday in his St. Patty’s Day onesie which said “1 Lucky Kid!” I took his picture this past weekend to be prepped and ready. Thank goodness I did, cause it was hard enough to do his 3 month photos after work on Wednesday. He’s getting big! I am going to weigh him tomorrow on our regular scale (me without him, then me with him and check the difference).

We went on a walk yesterday because it was so nice out, even though I wasn’t feeling too great. It was nice to get some fresh air. Brian and I are supposed to have a date night this weekend, we’ll see if I’m up for it. Tootles.

life with baby

Sleeping

February 15, 2011 No Comments

This week, sleeping has been on my mind a lot. Particularly Jameson’s sleep, though my sleep is included in that! After grandma’s visit the other week when Jameson was so cranky, he’s been a (relative) angel during the day. But we are still on a crazy non-nap schedule where he seems to go some days awake all day long and other days asleep all day long. Night time sleeping varies, some are better than others (last night I got the most sleep in a row that I’ve gotten since he was wee little and sleeping all the time, a whole 5 hrs straight).

So I bought a book which hasn’t come yet to help me scheduling him. I would love to have him on some sort of schedule by the time he goes to daycare, which is just 3 short weeks away. At least, a schedule for feeding him so that the week before I go back to work I can practice pumping at certain times of the day, more than the once a day I’ve been doing now, and so that I can schedule him to nurse at around noon so I can visit at lunch and feed him. And with the feeding I hope the napping will come! I can’t figure it out, it’s like he’s on a 48 hour schedule instead of 24. He spent most of the day awake yesterday but today he has slept with only me waking him to eat most of the day!

I still wonder if some of that is his congestion, and I’m also wondering if maybe it is allergy related instead of cold (because if it’s really a cold, it must be the mildest cold ever). I wouldn’t be surprised since the house has been closed up since winter started, we had super dry air (Brian just installed the house humidifier on Sunday) and I only clean every couple weeks and we have a large dog that shakes off a whole small dog’s worth of fur whenever she moves. Sasha causes me allergies sometimes too.

So Jameson turns 2 months tomorrow, and his 2 month doctor’s appointment is on Saturday so I’m not taking him back to the doctor for his congestion. We’ll see if she’ll still want to give him his vaccine’s since he’s still showing congestion symptoms when he’s upset and when he’s been on his back for extended periods of time.

general life, life with baby

Night Out

January 24, 2011 No Comments

Brian and I had our first night out together, without Jameson, on Friday 1/21. We went to Rosewood Grill in Hudson, which was perfect! Brian made it a surprise for me, which was nice. We had never been there, it’s an upscale but not too upscale restaurant not too far from home which was ideal in case of emergency! But we were only gone for a couple hours and everything was fine. When we got back, Jameson was getting a photo shoot with his Aunt Melissa and grandma and grandpa. Our dinner was fantastic, I had a glass of nice red wine and a lobster penne. Brian got a shrimp and scallop dish with brussell sprouts and butternut squash risotto. The restaurant is not all seafood though, it’s actually a nice mix of anything you might want and now ranks up there with my favorite places!

This weekend Jameson was a little ornery for mom and dad. For everyone else, he was great! On Saturday, he visited with old friends Tara, Tracy and Jamie. Tracy had never visited our new house yet, so it was great to see her.

Saturday evening we spent an hour at the neighbor’s party (mom and Jameson left early because they were both super tired, Brian stayed later). Between Friday and Saturday, he managed to switch his schedule a little bit and wanted to spend time awake at night. Luckily yesterday we got him back on track and he was good last night. It probably doesn’t help though that the poor guy has a cold!

Today I took him to his first sick baby doctor visit 🙁 The good news is that he is continuing to gain weight great, and we haven’t seen any worsening of the spit up. In fact, the precautions of making sure he stays upright for a while after eating, elevating his mattresses, and burping more often seems to have helped some, though he is still spitting up more than he did as a newborn. But since he is gaining so much weight, I think it might be because he is just trying to eat more than his tummy can hold! He weighed in today at 7lb 11oz, which is 8 oz over last Monday. The doctor was impressed! That is even after he pooed this morning, haha.

Doctor said he is congested, which she said was probably due to last week’s doctor visit. Doctor offices must have a lot of germs… right now there’s not too much to do for him since it’s not causing him problems eating yet and he is okay breathing when relaxed and content. He only has problems when he gets upset, when he starts making pig snorts and breathing hard! So it’s just humidifier and elevation, which we are already doing. Too bad this makes tummy time that much more upsetting though, since he’s already not too fond of the activity and now it makes it hard for him to breathe. But we’ll keep doing exercises anyway.

Last week, the doctor told us we should start giving him vitamin D, as it (and later, iron) are deficient in the breast milk. The first day I gave it to him last week I had him laid flat, which was not the way to do it! I should’ve looked it up first, then I would’ve seen I should hold his head up so he doesn’t choke. Luckily he’s very tolerant of it, and the next day doing it proper and squirting it to the side of his mouth was easy and I think he may have even liked it since he kept licking his lips afterwards and didn’t spit much out at all! He’s a champ! So I’m sure the cold will be gone soon, though she did say it could take up to two weeks to completely disappear.

He’s getting so big! He looks like such a big boy in his polo onesie from cousin Stacey who visited last week!

life with baby

One Month Old

January 18, 2011 No Comments

Jameson was one month old on Sunday. I can’t believe how quick the time has gone! We went to the doctor yesterday and he got one shot. I was surprised to know how big he has gotten–particularly his head. I knew he had grown in length, because we are starting to use the 0-3 month clothing because he is too long for some of his newborn sleep and plays. But I didn’t guess how big his head had gotten! It grew 1 inch in circumference since his 2 week appointment. He grew just 1/2 inch in length, he is now 20 1/4″ long. And his weight is now 7 lb 3 oz. (Although, we did have a poo at the doctors after the weigh in, so maybe it wasn’t quite that much! haha)

A lot of people are having babies! On facebook today I saw that a friend from college had a 7 lb 11 oz baby.It is hard to imagine that a) a newborn is bigger than my one month old and b) that Jameson at this size now could still be in my belly! Crazy. He is so awake now though that I can’t envision it.

He has recently started spitting up more– and a couple times it has been projectile-like, so the doctor has told us to watch and see if the projectile-like spit up is happening more and if he starts peeing less. Apparently, a fairly common problem with first born males is Pyloric Stenosis and it is a problem with the valve at the bottom of the stomach entering the small intestines. It begins to appear between 3 and 6 weeks, so Jameson is right in that time frame now. The problem requires real surgery to correct, so Brian and I are strongly hoping that he doesn’t have this problem. So far, the bad spit up has only happened a couple times and we hope it was related to what I ate, or the quantity that he is trying to eat.

Otherwise, he is petite, but healthy and gaining weight well! Today, cousin Stacey is coming to visit him and tomorrow we have some more friends stopping by. This past week, he met my friends Cassie and Teresa. Teresa is going to be a pediatrician in just a few months, so I took advantage of her and made her hold him for a couple hours 😉 Cassie brought over a cute pull along toy. Before I know it he’ll be walking and playing with it, I’m sure!

I have finally given myself permission to not take a photo every single day. However, that day hasn’t happened yet. But I have a photo now of every day since he was born up to one month, I think it’s time for a break before Jameson gets camera shy! I did manage to get him on a bookshelf, which, in addition to the naked photos, is the only other thing I wanted from a professional photographer. Success without the cost! They turned out really cute too.

preparing for baby

Room Layouts and Colds

September 14, 2010 No Comments

Last week was a bit hectic and not so much fun; I worked late on Wednesday night, until almost 8:30, which is quite a bit more than my usual 7:30-4:30 days. I think also consequently my little cold developed into a bigger cold, and I was pretty miserable by Friday/Saturday.

Brian and Melissa and the my in-laws went to see his grandma (and some extended family) on Saturday without me. His grandma is doing very well, which is nice to hear after the ups and downs this year! Becky made a fantastic lasagna, which they were nice enough to give me leftovers 🙂

While he was gone, I attempted to put up my yellow & green owl & bird decal, which is pretty much the reason why I didn’t feel like we have to paint, and which was the base around the entire nursery theme (it was the very first thing I purchased, during a big sale). Of course, nothing goes quite as planned. I purchased it in June and so when the edges kept unpeeling and not sticking correctly, I got upset since we’re well past the return policy time period! However, on Sunday they emailed me back and since June, they have switched their decal material; they believe the new material will stick to my walls no problem. They have a long shipping period, so it will be a while before I get it. In another 2-3 weeks I will be able to try the new decal. They are allowing me to keep the old one though, so I am thinking of things we could do with it. Brian suggested we could spray on a better adhesive, so I might fill a couple picture frames with some pieces of it. As a last resort, if the new one doesn’t work, I’ll be using it to trace and paint a similar picture instead.

Sunday I started to feel better, and I’m pretty much good to go now, except for the awful sounding cough I have, which is pretty much snot drainage in my lungs. And if that’s TMI then you’ve never had a proper cold!

We did end up keeping the changing table which pretty closely matches the crib! It is made out of real wood (except for the shelves) and even has the nice curves that make it look as if it were made to go with our crib! So recently I spent some time on layouts in the room. I went back and forth, we tried a couple different ones.

Last nice, I decided to try one of Brian’s original suggestions (hopefully he won’t rub it in too much), to put the crib along the wall near the closet. Initially I was against this, because the crib sticks out pretty far and will partially block one of the closet doors. However when we actually did it, I found that I wasn’t that bothered by it at all, the closet is still very easily accessible. The room is much more opened up by this move, so I think this is how it will stay!

general life, pets, preparing for baby

Baby and Sasha Updates

July 29, 2010 No Comments

Sasha is doing well! She got her cone off and the toe is finally looking healed or nearly so. We had a small scare because we had to get the bandage off early, her toe was staying too moist which was concerning obviously if it had continued so. So the first time we saw the toe it was not has healed as I would’ve liked it to be and looked very raw. Sasha did not like her cone either. It took her a day or so to get used to lying down in it and not running into things as much. Brian bought car door protector things which we put on the raw plastic on the outside of the cone as a bumper because she was scratching things up!

It was very nice visiting with Tyler, he stayed an extra day so I took that day off and we watched movies. I had a lot of fun, it was nice to take a day off for once. I don’t have a lot of spare days now at this point, I am trying to save them for maternity leave. I can use 5 PTO days on maternity leave, which I intend on trying to do so that is one less week I have to take unpaid.

Tuesday we had our ultrasound, which would’ve been the gender one had we decided to find out. But we didn’t! The technician even made us look away when she examined the legs, so we never got a hint. It’ll be a big suprise! It may have been our last ultrasound, I don’t know if they’ll do another one. Everything is good with Peapod, it has a four chamber heart that is functioning properly, and kidneys and bladder that look good. 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 hands and 2 feet! I have a really cute picture of a foot. We got to see the spine and other bones, and the head of course. I have a creeper photo of the face looking at us, but it looks like an alien. I told Brian it looked like him hahahaha. We had the ultrasound at 18 weeks and 5 days, and I measured exactly 18 weeks and 5 days, so the due date will remain at Dec. 23, which is mildly disappointing for my anti-Christmas complaints.

Brian likes the fact that I have a little belly now and he rubs it, but no kicking yet! There have been a couple times where I thought maybe I felt something, but it did not repeat often enough for me to be confident that that was it. The doctors said by next appointment I should be feeling it, but even then it won’t be all the time because it’s still really small. I am almost to the halfway point though, which is bizarre! Really just bizarre all the way around that by December we will have a little family.

We toured the two options we had for hospitals last week. The practice said I can go with either Akron General or Akron City; both take the same amount of time to get to (about 40-45 minutes). We chose Akron City because they had bathrooms in every post partum room. Akron General had different post partum rooms (we only saw one of them, but the ladies description said that some had bathrooms in the hall!). Otherwise the hospitals were about the same. Akron General is supposed to be getting new rooms soon, but can’t guarantee when or even if I would get a new room when I deliver, so Akron City it is! I think the buildings are around the same age, but City looks newer also.

The way it works is that I will go into a labor/delivery/recovery room and then to a post partum room after I’ve recovered initially from the birth. As far as care goes, they seem to offer the same level of care. Akron General is directly connected to Akron Children’s for any serious issues, but Akron City takes care of everything except a couple long term care type of things, and then they send them to Akron Children’s too. So that’s not an issue either.

I, like usual, am impatient to be planning and doing things. I am trying not to buy much. I bought my bedding set, because it was not something I could register for, but I keep second guessing myself cause bedding is so expensive. Brian’s mom is looking at planning a baby shower in October, I am shooting for later October so my mom and Holly can spend more time here. Holly runs until later in October. That’s all for now… cheerio.

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