9 months and 6 teeth and wet beds

Oh hi.  We've been a bit busy and I haven't posted an update about Maggie turning 9 months old. 

The weather here has been crazy.  Depending on your feelings about snow, you would either love or hate the month of February here in Columbus.  Last week was a shortened week due to President's day, but then I was off again on Tuesday due to the massive amounts of snow we had on the ground.  As a result Maggie's doctor appointment got cancelled and moved to Thursday and I was out of work for another half day.  It's amazing I still have a job.  Since we moved our office, I have been late every day (except for today) or off to the doctor with a child. Here's hoping March looks a little better.

So, Maggie is now 9 months old, as of the 12th.  Where has the time gone?  We switched doctors and I feel so much better about that decision.  Our old doctor was a very nice guy, but he missed an ear infection.  How does that happen?  The new doctor is excellent and said Maggie is great.  She is 24 pounds and 29 inches.  I've been worried about the flat spot on her head since she was about 3 months old.  The old doctor, my cousin Traci, and the new doctor have all told me not to worry about it.  Since they are all in the medical profession, I will stop worrying about it.  We started giving Maggie some table food.  She loves shredded cheese and bread.  We diced up some carrots for her over the weekend and she seemed to like that too.  She now has her 2 bottom teeth and her doctor informed me that she has 4 top teeth coming in.  This is bothering her a lot.  She is not sleeping well at all.  And in turn, neither are we.  But, we will get through this.  She is trying very hard to crawl, and I would bet that it happens pretty soon.  My daydream of her and Izzy wearing the same clothes is over.  Maggie is wearing 18 month clothes.  She is a big girl!

Izzy has been out of school for most of this month.  She is not happy about this!  We thought for sure she would be going back last Thursday as the school district was only on a 2 hour delay, but then they closed.  When I broke the news to her she cried.  She misses her boys, I suppose.  She will go back tomorrow and have a delayed Valentine's party.  She had been sleeping in pull-ups since we started potty training.  She had been waking up dry.  So, we thought it was time for her to start sleeping in her regular underwear, her "big girl unders."  She did so good for a full week.  And then, I bragged.  And she wet the bed that same night.  She was very upset by it so I didn't yell at her.  We got her cleaned up and I let her sleep with us.  And then she did it the next night.  And then she went back to pull-ups.  I"m not sure, but I think maybe she just wanted an excuse to sleep with us.  So, after a week of pull-ups, I put her back in her big girl unders last night.  I even went back an hour after she went to bed to make her go again.  She had already done that on her own.  Shd didn't flush, because she didn't want to wake her baby sister, so I did see the proof that she went again.  On my second trip up to get a crying Maggie, Izzy was awake, and wet.  At 12:10am, I sent her down to sleep with us while I got Maggie back to sleep.  So, it's back to pull-ups for her.  She will get the hang of it, I know she will.  I think she is still adjusting to Maggie. 

But she is doing so good with everything else.  She loves her sister but still needs her one-on-one time.  She has a wonderful imagination and is helpful around the house when she wants to be. She is starting to identify more letters and numbers, which is GERAT!

I can't believe we will be having a birthday party for Maggie soon.  And then, we can go to the beach!  And then have a birthday party for Izzy.  Time goes by so much faster when there are kids involved.

Score Card

Incase you are keeping score....


Hospital Visits - Izzy - 0, Maggie - 2
Prescriptions - Izzy - 0, Maggie - 4 (2 for her eyes, twice on antibiotics)

One of the joys of having two children would have to be the fact that they can pass a cold around for weeks. Once we think they are over it, it comes back. Izzy complained that she wasn't feeling well on 1/26. She had a pretty bad cough along with some excellent gunk in her lungs. She would cough and cough and eventually hork up something that would cause her to think she was going to throw up. She learned to spit it out and eventually got better. Sorta. That cough shows up every now and then, but it's not too bad. No fevers, no actual puking, just a chest congestion cough.

Then Maggie decided to take the reins when we thought the cold was exiting our home. She started coughing on 1/29. The days have all run together, but I think she may have thrown up all over one of us that night. Then on Saturday, she coughed so much she threw up at least 8oz of milk and some chest gunk all over me. Twice. Repeat on Sunday. She would get so worked up crying and not be able to calm herself down she would just throw up. We changed a lot of clothes that weekend.

She didn't have a fever, just coughing and pretty much refusing to eat. Tuesday I decided I would take her to the doctor Wednesday afternoon, just to have her listened to. Tuesday night she had a fever, so I changed the plan and took her in Wednesday morning. I figured I would run her in there as early as possible then head in to work. I was just going for piece of mind that it would eventually clear up.

After the doctor listened to her lungs a few times and checked her ears and mouth, he said he could hear congestion but nothing too bad. After he timed her breathing he said she was breathing a little fast so he had the nurse take her pulse ox. The best reading they could get was 92 (out of 100) and we did 3 breathing treatments. When her last reading was 89, he decided we couldn't go home and I needed to take her to Children's hospital for a chest x-ray and possibly more breathing treatments.

They checked her oxygen levels again at the hospital and they were 97, no more breathing treatments needed. The doctor's office was using the type of monitor you would clip to the finger, but her fingers are too small to get an accurate reading. She did perfect through her x-rays which showed a possible spot of pneumonia. No big deal, just keep an eye on it. But, here is the kicker. The nurse practitioner that looked her over found an ear infection. An ear infection! Pretty common in little ones. Pretty common to the fact that her pediatrician should have found that during his exam. That explains a lot as to why she wasn't sleeping well, why she kept batting at her ear, why she wasn't eating. We were sent home with an Rx for antibiotics and wouldn't you know it, she is feeling so much better. She was so tired by the end of the day, she fell asleep in her high chair.

This morning, I found the girls a new pediatrician. He should have caught an ear infection. He should have caught her eye infection at 5 days old. She has a slightly flat head that I'm (a little overly) concerned about and now I worry that we have waited too long, on his advice, to correct it.

On top of all of this, she has finally broken through with her 2 bottom teeth. I'd love to show you a picture, but she is too busy feeling it with her tongue.