Tag: doctor

Life with 2 kids on a Monday

I survived a whole day of 2 kids!  Thanks be to God!

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!

Pitiful

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.

Another ear infection

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.

24 Month Check Up

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.