mauter.com

That’s what Sam is.  Poor thing.  She’s still sick, and now it’s worse than ever.  Combine that with an intolerance of medicines, and we have a severely pitiful little girl.  She got two shots today, so hopefully she will begin to feel better and we can go back to regular medicine soon.

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

Samantha has an ear infection. But she has tubes, you say? Yes well, tubes don’t eliminate ear infections, just hopefully make them much less frequent. She got tubes in May 2009, so I think we’ve had a pretty good run.

Samantha and Brian got sick a couple of weeks ago with a bad cold. It was a doozie. However, after suffering through that week, they both got better. We had a solid week of health around here only for Janie to get it next. Took long enough. Anyway.

Over the weekend, Brian kept telling me that Samantha’s neck smelled bad. Like, really stunk. I tried to smell her neck but either I was smelling in the wrong place, or I just couldn’t smell at all (thanks to the cold). Last night, as we were getting ready for her bath, I noticed that her hair was stuck to her ear with this nasty goupy stuff. It was quite gross. And quite smelly.

Turns out, she’s got an ear infection. Thanks to the tubes, the goup is draining out of her ear. We’ve got some antibiotic ear drops to start using. (And I’m sure you can imagine the fun we’re going to have to pin down a 2 year old to put drops down her ear.) If that doesn’t clear it up, we’ll have to switch to an oral antibiotic.

We went to the pediatrician last week for Samantha’s 24 month check-up. The doctor walked in and said “Wow, I haven’t seen you in a while!” After looking at her chart, he commented that the last time he saw us was when he recommended tubes for her ears. That was 6 months ago, so he said it was in fact the right decision. It wasn’t cold season during that time, but still, Samantha has been fairly healthy for a good while now.

So, on to her check-up. The doctor said everything looks great. In general, she’s about 60th percentile in growth. Her language development is not where it needs to be, but I think it has drastically improved in the last month or two. He doesn’t seem to be alarmed to it. She got a HiB shot (had a nationally shortage for the last year, otherwise she should’ve had it at her 12 month appointment), a flu shot, and a H1N1 flu nose mist. She’ll have to go back in a month and get the booster shot for the H1N1.

I’m pooped. I’ve been working a lot, so that doesn’t leave much time for photography or updating one’s website.

We have enjoyed a few weekends at home after a busy April. Catching up on little things makes me feel better. I’ve been decorating a little bit. I feel like I’m horrible at decorating a house, so I’ve been trying to put my style into the house just a bit. Not a moment too soon, since we’ve been here for nearly 6 years…

Samantha had her 18 months checkup last week. She’s growing well and very average. Everything was right on, except for her speech. She’s not saying as many words as is normal at this age. I’m not worried about it because the girl “talks” constantly and I know words will come in due time. The doctor is not worried about it because her “receptive” language is good. She really does understand exactly what we say. She knows most of her body parts and all sorts of other everyday words. However, her lack of words may be due to the fact that she has yet another ear infection. The doctor said it’s time to go to an ENT and get tubes. Having constant ear infections can make sounds muffled, so she may not be hearing properly, therefore her speech will be affected. I’m not totally convinced that it’s the right course of action, but we at least need to give it a try (going to the ENT that is). They might have other options for us.

Samantha had her 15 month checkup a few days ago. Everything’s going well, this time. The doctor said she did have some residual fluid in one of her ears, but because she was sick for so long, he wasn’t concerned. Other than that, she got a clean bill of health. She’s in the 70th percentile for height, but 30th for weight. He said she’s got 2 molars in the back already, and it looks like 2 more are about to cut through too. I had noticed that she was drooling A LOT, but hadn’t even noticed the teeth in the back. Her mood didn’t seem to be nearly as affected this time around. We’ve tried to look in her mouth since then, but we can’t seem to pry it open.

In other news, we are smitten with a new house. We’ll see if it works out for us. More news on that later.