However, Ellie has had a high fever since Thursday 12/22 at 5pm.  We visited the doctor Friday morning and discovered that she had a moderate ear infection in one ear.  Then, the worst hit later that morning.  We’re still in the midst of it, although there were a few hours this morning when I thought the worst was over and our little girl came back.  Otherwise, she’s sluggish, puny and pretty dog gone pitiful.

So, I pray your Christmas is healthy and happy.

The doctor tried to look into Samantha’s ears first thing, which she has always been resistant to let anyone do.  She has always been very sensitive about sounds or ANYTHING in/near her ears.  So, Ellie went first so she could be the example for Sam to watch.  Ellie is still long and tall, but is evening out a little.  She’s a little slow on speech, but can understand a surprising amount of what we tell her.  It’s surprising to me, but I’m sure it’s normal.  Just the same, it’s that amazing?  Sam was the same way.

Samantha’s check up went well too.  The doctor asked her 4 safety questions (which he told me were the top 4 unfortunate accidents – or worse – for children) like “What do you do when you get into a car?  Buckle up.”  And so on.  She knew all of the answers and gave a good High Five to the doc.

The nurse came in and gave Ellie her 2 shots.  She was consoled very easily.  Then, a strange animal that I had never seen showed up.  Was it a bucking bronco?  Was it an octopus, with 8 flailing arms?  Was it a growling wolf, showing its teeth?  Was it a screeching owl?  All of the above.  It was my Sam.  She got 5 shots (ouch).  She knew she was going to get them and backed herself into a corner, displaying the above said tendencies when it was time.  The nurse asked me if I needed some help to pin her down.  (She is surprisingly strong for her age and always has been, but at this point, I’m used to being a bit forceful when needed.)  The sounds coming out of her were from a possessed horror movie.  It was unreal.  I had never seen anything like it before.

Glad that’s over.  Until next year.

Ellie had her 15 month check up a few weeks ago.  She’s a whoppin 19 lbs, which puts her in the 3rd percentile.  However, she’s 31″ tall which is about the 95th percentile.  She’s a regular Long Tall Sally.  I still have her turned rear-facing in the car, but Brian has yet another car seat in his car so she can ride face forward.

She started at St. Peter’s daycare in early August.  After an initial rough week or two, she’s doing just fine now.  We’ve got our routine down for drop off and pick up, and they are accommodating to my schedule.

She has a particular squeal when she sees Molly.  She can say “All done.”  She can squish her nose, which is so cute.  She knows a few body parts, like ear, eye and teeth.  She can use signs to say “more,” “all done,” and just recently “please.”  She still has only 6 teeth.

Ellie likes to play with whatever Sam is playing with.  She like cars or things with wheels.  Ellie is a Daddy’s girl and loves to rough-house with him.  She’s all ears.

We went back to the doctor recently to get a check up on her ears.  There was still a little residual fluid from the last ear infection, but otherwise, looked good.  She weighed 16 lbs 4 oz.

Today, we went to the pediatric cardiologist to check up on her congenital heart defect.  She still has the ASD.  It’s very small (5 mm), but it should have closed up by now.  At this point, the only thing we’ll do is continue to get a check up by the cardiologist so he can monitor it.  Other than that, there’s no reason to treat her any differently.  If, by some reason, she is in the hospital one day and needs an IV, we would need to caution the staff that she does have a heart defect.  There’s a very rare chance that oxygen could enter the IV, and because the two chambers of her heart are connected, could make its way to the brain.  I can’t remember the name of that condition, but it’s bad.  At any rate, she’ll most likely have day surgery (by cardiac catheterization, not open-heart surgery) when she’s about 5 years old to close the hole.  The doctor said the device used to close the hole is made perfectly for her case.  Apparently, the hole in her heart is in the center of the wall separating the two chambers, so there is plenty of room on all sides to insert this device.

If you didn’t want to know all the details, I’m sorry.  I’m recording all this information because it’s fresh.  I know that in two years time when we go back for a check up, I will have forgotten all these details.  Like most blogs, I use this place as a record!

She was a sicko last week, so I was glad to get to the doctor on Tuesday.  Turns out, she has an ear infection in both ears, just like her big sister!  She has had a low grade fever, but other than that (which I attributed to teething), she hasn’t shown any signs of infection.  She’s just so happy!

We started baby food (squash) last week and added sweet potatoes this week.  She’s getting much better at eating with a spoon, but I just don’t think she’s going to be a big eater.  She’s now at 15 lbs 10 oz, which is near 40th percentile.

Samantha chimes in just under 40 lbs and 40 inches.  That’s about the 97th and 92nd percentile.  The doctor forecasted that to an adult, which equates to about 5’8″ or 9″.  I don’t think she’ll be that tall, so I’m guessing she’s just an early bloomer.

She got a flu shot and a meningitis vaccine.  I was hoping to get out of there without any shots!

UPDATE:  One thing that I forgot to mention is that one of her current sayings is very funny.  ”Oh! Hey!  That’s a good idea!” She’ll say it for any reason at all.

He still hears a murmur, but he said it was faint. Maybe she’s still growing out of her ASD. We head back to the cardiologist in a few more months.

She got 5 vaccinations. Those are never fun, so she was a little grouchy. But she was soon back to her normal happy self.

Lately, she has started laughing and grabbing for toys.  She can pretty much hold her head up now, but she’s still a little wobbly. She loves watching and listening to her big sister. She is such a happy baby. She’s talkative, playful and content just doing whatever.

She is really loving her fingers and thumbs right now, so I needed to capture it.

8:52PM – I just checked on Samantha and that little turkey is still awake. I go back to our bedroom where Brian and I are talking about how to handle Ellie during the night. She’s still not sleeping great. We have been taking turns at each outburst, but after 3 or 4 of those during the night, it’s hard to remember whose turn it is. I was proposing for each of us to take a night. For example, one night, I am responsible for all outbursts so Brian can sleep. The next night, it’s his turn so I can sleep. We didn’t really come to a resolution. I lay down on the bed, which means: game over, I fall asleep.

11:01PM – Brian wakes me up to feed Ellie.

11:38PM – Go back to bed.

1:15AM – I hear Samantha crying. She woke up crying last night too. That never happens. Last night, she must have had a bad dream about a boat. Random. I get up and walk into her room. She tells me, amid the crying, that she needs a napkin to wipe her ear. Um. What? I get a Kleenex and ask her which ear. Sure enough, there’s a nasty goop all over her left ear, face, hair and pillow. Great. An ear infection. (Here’s the original discovery that goop could come out of her ear. Beware, it’s gross.) She had a cold a few weeks ago. She got over it in about a week, so I thought we were in the clear. Oh well. I make a note to call the doctor. I ask her if her ear hurts and she says yes. I ask her if she wants some medicine and she says yes. I give her some Motrin. I tell her we’ll call the doctor in the morning.

1:30AM – Go back to bed.

3:30AM – There’s a raucous on my nightstand. What is it? Is Samantha standing by my bed messing with my nightstand? I’m confused. Molly. Molly is trying to eat my lavender lotion. “Stop. Molly. Stop.” I say as I’m hitting her rear end. She stops only momentarily. I grab her by the collar and pull her off my nightstand. Fall back to sleep.

4:08AM – What. In. The. Name. Of all that is holy. “Molly. Stop.” She’s trying to eat my bottle of lotion again. I grab her and throw her out of the room and close the door. Go back to bed.

4:33AM – “Mreow.” Oh for crying out loud. “Mreow.” Maddie. “Mreow.” She’s standing on the floor just beneath my nightstand. “Mreow.” She is staring up at me. “Mreow.” She wants to be near her beloved Molly. “Mreow.” She is persistent. “Mreow.” I get up, open the bedroom door and wait for her to bolt out. Mostly close the door. Go back to bed.

4:35AM – The air conditioner kicks on. The bedroom door slams closed.

5:13AM – Ellie wakes up. Normally, I would be happy if she slept till after 5. Brian gets up. I don’t hear her in the monitor any more.

5:15AM – Brian yells at me from the front of the house. “Jane! I need some help!” Doesn’t he know that he’s going to wake up Samantha if he yells like that? I get out of bed. I nearly walk into Sam in the hallway. She is standing with nothing on but a shirt. Ellie starts to cry. Brian is stripping Samantha’s bed. He says “Pick one.” I go into Ellie’s room and give her a paci. She falls right back to sleep. On a normal night, that never happens. I come back out and help Sam get to the potty. We sit for a while in the bathroom. She says she needs to go, but nothing happens. After Brian finishes with her bed, I put another diaper and new PJs on her. I get her back in bed and tell her to go back to sleep.

5:30AM – Go back to my bedroom. I ask Brian what happened. Apparently, after quieting Ellie, he heard some strange noises in Sam’s room. He went in and she was sitting up in bed. He told her to lay down. She said she couldn’t because her popsicles were wet (her PJs have popsicles on them). Sure enough, she and all her bedding were wet.

6AM – Ellie wakes up. Brian gives her a paci and comes back to bed. She continues to squawk. It’s not really a cry, but it usually means she’s tired or cold.

6:30AM – Alarm goes off. Like I need it. I’ve been awake since 3:30.

The end.

She had an EKG first with about a dozen sticky monitors. She wasn’t fond of them being pulled off. Then she was weighed and came in at 8 lbs 6 ozs. That’s my growing girl!

When the doctor came in, he listened with his stethoscope and said everything sounded normal. Then we put her up on a table for the sonogram. He looked all over her heart, examining each of the 4 chambers and watching each valve. She has an atrial septal defect. It’s an opening in between the two sides of the upper chambers. All children are born with it, but it usually goes away within a few weeks after birth. (This explains why NICU didn’t note it.) Her’s is still abnormally large.

Over time, the right side of the heart would have to work harder, and the blood vessels in the lungs could be damaged. However, it would take many years for something like that to happen. In our case, we will go back when she’s six months old for him to reexamine. If it still hasn’t healed, when she’s about school age, she would have surgery. They wouldn’t have to do open heart surgery. They could go in through a cathetar and place a meshy wire thing. He described it as a top hat with two brims: one at the top and one at the bottom. For the sewers out there, I thought of it as a bobbin. It would plug the opening, and the skin of the heart would eventually grow around it.

So, hopefully she’ll continue to grow and it will heal itself. Otherwise, she’ll have a minor surgery. Either way, the doctor did not really seem concerned. Heart murmurs are fairly common (some literature they gave us said as many as 1 in 5 adults had a murmur, or has one and may not even know it), so I know she’ll be fine. I feel great to be in Birmingham where we are surrounded by great specialty doctors.

In other news, Ellie started smiling last week! Brian still hasn’t seen a smile since she still sleeps a good bit, but I know he’ll see one soon! It’s very sweet!

While I had him, I wanted to ask a few questions.  We were out in the sun over the holiday weekend, so I asked about sunscreen.  I think she got a little sun on her face – the only exposed part of her body.  He said no sunscreen until 6 months of age.  I guess that means our beach trip soon will be spent in the house.

My next question was a bit more complicated.  We spent the holiday weekend with my parents.  The pool was a little cool (ask Brian who bravely got in with Sam both days) but we had a great weekend.  My mom, however, went to the doctor on Tuesday and discovered that she had developed shingles.  At one point, there were 7 children under the age of 5 hanging around.  That’s a lot of exposure to the chicken pox virus.  The doctor was very concerned and asked me in great detail about Mom’s condition and Ellie’s exposure.  He determined that he would need to talk with his Infectious Disease team to determine the course of action.  Most likely, she would receive a special vaccine administered at the hospital.  Children these days get a vaccine for chicken pox in 2 doses: 1 at 12 months and 1 at 4 years.  Giving the vaccine at a very young age is dangerous, but not as dangerous as getting the virus.  However, he called me back at the end of the day (wow-I don’t think I’ve EVER received a direct call back from the actual doctor!  Kudos to Dr. Dudgeon!) and said that because I had chicken pox as a kid and now I’m breastfeeding, that Ellie has my immunity to it.  Yay!  Brian takes full credit for the endless encouragement for me to continue nursing.  I didn’t think I would make it, but judging by her weight, I think we’re over the worst.  Back to the chicken pox.  I asked about Samantha too.  Since she has received the first vaccine, she has an 80% immunity to the virus.  If she is in the unlikely 20% who will receive it, she would have a mild case.  So, no worries.  We should be good.

The doctor went ahead and started giving her an exam.  He listened to her heart for a very long time.  I suspected that he heard something he didn’t like.  He said he heard a heart murmur.   I’m not sure why he heard it now, and it was not detected at birth or in NICU.  He said it might be nothing, but he still wants us to go to a cardiologist and have it checked out.   I should receive a call back from his nurse with an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist.

So, what started out as a simple weight check without seeing the doctor turned into a full appointment.  He spent a long time with me so I appreciate that he worked me in.

Samantha is doing very well around Ellie. She can be a bit rough, but loves to help pat and burp. And she’s a big help to throw Ellie’s diapers in the trash.

The doctor said she needed visual stimulation (already? She’s still just a blob!  EDIT:  Ok, so she’s not a blob.  But she still sleeps a lot that it seems she wouldn’t need a mobile yet if she’s always asleep.) and she needed to listen to lots of music. We listen to plenty of Raffi (thanks to Samantha) so I need to add some other types in the mix. I got out a gym toy this afternoon for her to lay under. Guess what Samantha did?

And when did Samantha become a giant?! She is about 7 times Ellie’s size. Sam is doing very well on the potty (naptime is still an issue-I’m thinking of switching to diapers/pullups at nap) so the only time she wears a diaper is at night. After changing Ellie’s diapers all day, doing the one of Samantha’s at night seems so different! She’s growing up!

Besides both kids wanting to eat at the exact same time, I think overall, the day went very smoothly!  I even had time to brush my teeth!  :)

Sam did well with Ellie.  She could be a little rough, but she is also very sweet.  Sam even decided she was ready to take a nap at 12:15.  So she went to bed!  Awesome.

Ellie had her first doctor’s appointment this afternoon.  Her bilirubin has gone down (from 10.3 to 9.2), so it’s still high, but going down is a good sign.  However, her weight has also gone down.  Her weight at discharge was 5 lbs, 4.5 oz.  Her weight this afternoon was 5 lbs, 3 oz.  It’s not much, but she can’t afford to lose much.  The doctor is concerned about continued weight loss.  Considering that she’s still not a great eater, I have different instructions on feeding now.  The NICU had her on a 4 hour schedule, but he wants me to go to a 2 hour schedule.  At night, we can push to 4 hours, but during the day, I need to feed basically all the time.  He wants me to go back to the lactation consultants at the hospital on Wednesday to do a pre-feeding and post-feeding weight.  Then back to the pediatrician on Monday.

Here’s a picture from us going home on Friday:

When Samantha came home on Sunday, she was very eager to hold Ellie.  She barely got in the front door.

Then she wanted to play outside.  I found a caterpillar on my azaleas, so I told Samantha that I found a worm.   She came over to inspect.  She said “caderpeeder.”  And I had clearly told her that it was a worm.  MamaLinda would be proud!

Janie woke up about three hours ago and now we’re at Brookwood in Labor and Delivery 1.  She’s at 0 station, 90% effaced and 2cm dilated.  We’re only 35 weeks and 5 days along, but the doctor said they won’t stop labor.

Sam is staying with the babysitter for the moment.  Stay tuned.

Today, the doctor determined that she has lost the tube in her right ear, so we’ll have to be careful about that one.