Back To Normal

This morning I woke up at 5 am to feed Frances and she decided to stay up. I then rounded at the hospital and now I have a little bit of time to kill before my clinic starts. Even though I would LOVE a nap, I think it would do more harm than good.

Besides the coughs that both of them have, I think we are pretty much over the RSV. It's such a relief. I actually had a nice, normal weekend with them last weekend.  While Aaron participated in his fantasy baseball draft I was able to take Frances and Henry to a park, shoe shopping for Henry and then ice cream afterwards. It was very nice and Frances did great. It was something I would have done with just Henry before Frances was born and I was able to do it again.

I feel like we're starting to get in a reall pattern. Unfortunately for Aaron, that pattern does not include bottle feeding. What a stubborn little girl.  We're still trying, but I think the fact that I come home at lunch time is slowing our progress. Still, I love that litte girl. 

 Look at what a great family we are (I was taking the picture).

RSV

I haven't posted in a while and I know I should, but I just don't know what to write. I like to have a concept or a funny story, or a major point before I actually write, but today I will just start and probably ramble.

Well, I went back to work about a week ago, and things went okay. It was easy for me to get back in the swing of things and see patients. I like my work and while I was there, I was happy to be there. A lot of families were happy to see me, which made me feel wanted. The main problem at this time was Frances. She is very dependent on me and missed me. She refused to take the bottle and was hard to coax to sleep. Before I came home at lunch she had a 30 minute crying spell refusing to eat for Aaron. This was not fun for neither Aaron or Frances and it did make me not enjoy work. I felt I needed to get home as quickly as possible to feed my girl.

Still, we were dealing with it, but then she got sick.

Well, actually Henry got sick first. He had a runny nose, cough and then developed a fever. On Friday, my second day of work, Frances started having a cough. During the weekend she developed congestion, fussiness, and things just seemed to get worse.  I actually don't like typing this, because in my mind I'm reliving it, and it is still too soon for me to think about.  She kept getting worse and she started to wheeze. I brought her into my clinic and she tested positive for RSV.  This was a big blow. I knew it could be bad. I saw so many kids in the hospital for RSV when I was a resident and I also knew about the correlation between it and asthma. Because I have asthma, I have always been scared my kids would get it too.  After the diagnosis, Frances still got worse. She was so congested and seemed to be struggling to breathe. It was hard to settle her down because she was fighting  o much to breath. That night she was crying, coughing, wheezing and breathing fast. I couldn't take it anymore so I brought her to the local emergency department. There she had a oxygen saturation of 99%, so even though she was working so hard, she had a normal oxygen saturation.  At home I stayed up with her until 3:30 or so, and she finally was able to sleep a little bit on my chest. I took the next day off and was with Frances constantly. I felt I needed to be vigilant in case something happened.  It was hard to watch her and frequently I felt overwhelmed. I remember wishing I could just fast forward this part of my life. Aaron stayed strong the whole time. It was what I needed. After that next 24 hours she started improving. Her congestion seemed less, so she could get more air into her lungs. She still wheezed quite a bit and had coughing spells, but at least she could breathe. Since then, every day has gotten a little better. About a week after she got sick, I finally felt she was going to be fine. After that my body seemed to relax and I suddenly felt very tired.  All the stress and not sleeping for a week can really add up. Today she has intermittent wheezing and lots of coughing after sleeping, but when she is awake, she is her smiley self.

It is really hard to be a parent to a sick kid. Luckily for me, this sickness is gone and she is fine. I can't imagine what a parent goes through with illnesses that are chronic or more severe.  I am very very fortunate, even if she develops asthma.

10 Weeks

Today is my last day of maternity leave, and it has been pretty great. Frances is now 10 weeks and doing very very well. This time with her has been wonderful.  I will cherish it forever.

The worst problem about taking care of a newborn is the sleep deprivation, and for the most part, I think we are done with that. You see, my little girl likes to sleep at night. The last few nights she has been sleeping 7+ hours at a time. It feels amazing. When she does wake up, she quickly eats and then goes back to bed.  I always hoped she would be that type of baby.  Having a good night sleep improves everything.  Once I go back to work, there is a chance she might increase her night feedings to be with me, but I hope not.

I couldn't choose just one shot from today, so you get three. At first Frances was content to look at me, but at the end she saw her feet and just kept trying to grab them over an over.  Look at the concentration on that girl.  I think she got the furrowed brow from me.

I keep telling myself that my work is not too bad. I only have to work 4 days a week and I get to come home for lunch every day.  How many people can do that?  The lunch things is also good because she is still refusing a bottle. If she doesn't eat for Aaron, at least I will come home eventually. Aaron is under no pretenses that his first few days will be easy.  

This last weekend Ben and Leah visited us. We had a great time and Henry got a lot of sword fighting in (I would say mostly from Leah). Frances behaved herself well.

 As you can see from the photo above, Henry is doing great in gymnastics. The gym is dark so sorry for the quality of the picture. He loves gymnastics and we love how it exercises him. He also started basketball and really likes that. I'm really hoping he continues it because I love basketball. Really, he could do baseball in the summer and basketball in the winter. Well, that would be our dream, we will see what Henry chooses.

I am being very domestic today and baked a breakfast that took 2 1/2 hours long and made a soup that took over an hour to make.  Lots of left overs for the next coming days.  I'm doing all I can to prepare for tomorrow. I'm not too sad (now), especially since Aaron is watching Frances.  We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Shots

Here is her belated 8 week picture. Isn't she getting chubby?

 Last Monday both Henry and Frances got a trip to my office for their physicals. I wasn't too worried about Frances, but I was a little concerned about how Henry would take the shots. As far as Henry, his weight is off the charts and his height is almost off the charts. He has been very consistent with his height which will bring an adult height of 6'2" or 6'3".  It sounds good to me. After the exam we were waiting in the room for the shots. It was at that time we told him what was going to happen next and I laid out all of the candy I brought. I saw in his eyes a moment of fear, but quickly his thoughts went to candy and he wasn't too scared. He did so well laying on the table when it was time. Then, the first shot happen and he was not too happy. He was crying and wanted it to be over. He had 3 shots and the last one he got his hand free and tried to take out the shot, but it was too late, the shot was done. After the shots Aaron cuddled him for a while and he got candy. He settled down pretty quickly and I felt relived.

Frances is doing great. She is 50% in height, weight and head circumference.  This was exactly what Henry was at 2 months too, which is funny because I picture Henry as really scrawny at 2 month and I don't think Frances is scrawny at all. She was asleep when the shots started and quickly went back to sleep after the shots. What a good girl.

Then that night they both had their little side effects. Henry spiked a fever and Frances slept a lot. When she awoke she seemed in pain. So, we gave Henry Ibuprofen and Frances Tylenol and they both settled down okay. The next morning Henry was back to his old self. It took Frances a few days to get over the soreness, but now she is also back to normal, well maybe even better than normal. Since she has recovered, she has decided to sleep better at night. On Wednesday night she slept 5 hours strait, then on Thursday night she went a full 6 hours!  I can't recall Henry ever doing that until about 9 month. This is a welcome change. We will see if this keeps up when I go back to work.

This picture shows how well Henry plays with Frances. Sometimes I have to stop him because it is too many kisses. What a problem to have!