Now that the fever scare has died down a bit (*knock on wood*), let me update you on our lovely Christmas week. Aunt Tracey flew down on the 20th and we had a nice brunch over at my parent's. Molly decided that her morning nap should be three hours long that day so we were all starving by the time she arrived with N. We had a nice relaxing weekend and headed up to Lucille's on Monday to see cousin Ali (pics were posted).
On Tuesday we headed downtown to see Christmas in the Park. It was a bit chilly so Molly was bundled up in the Bob stroller and was more than happy to have a blanket on her for once. Every now and then you'd see her push the blanket down and point to something that caught her eye. For me it was really just an excuse to have dinner at Pizz'a Chicago. SOOO good! Although after dinner I went outside to wait for N (who was retrieving the Yukon from a parking garage up the street) as Molly was in her jacket and boots and getting a little warm inside. I'm just making sure her blanket is nice and secure when I hear some guy behind me yelling about someone touching his fuckin' car. I turn around and see this very angry man coming around the front of a Dodge Charger to confront a guy on the sidewalk just a few feet from me. This guy is super pissed so I move Molly behind the cement pillar we're standing in front of. The pedestrian tells the guy his hit his car because this guy almost hit him (the Dodge was over the front line of the cross walk with the back tires well inside the cross walk). The driver did not care. He keeps going on about his fuckin' car and how it should fuckin' not be fuckin' touched and then pushes the pedestrian so hard his feet come up off the ground before he lands practically on his back. At this point the pedestrian says, "Do you want me to call the police?" and the angry man responds with, "Do you want to fuckin' fight?" Yeah, I was confused too. Since Molly is safe behind the pillar and behind me I then say, "How about *I* call the police?" as I get my phone out. Angry man then realizes I'm there and I start dialing. At this point my dad has come out and I have him stand behind Molly as I walk towards the pedestrian. Angry man takes off as there are now multiple witnesses, but before he gets in his car I say to the pedestrian, "Make sure you get his license plate!" so angry man speeds off. The pedestrian was more than a little shaken up so I hand the phone to him (911 had been dialed) while I run out to catch the license plate number. It was something along the lines of 5NPR001. I think the letters might be jumbled, but I kept repeating them to myself as I tell my dad to go get a pen. The pedestrian was completely shaken up and more than a little freaked out. No kidding, he had just been assaulted. I give him my contact number along with the make, model, color, and license plate of the car and tell him to have the police call me if he decides to fill out a report as I was a witness. So yeah, that night was a little intense.
On Christmas Eve my dad, my sister, N, and I headed down to The Tech for the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit while my mom stayed at our place with Molly. It was really cool. They had a lot of artist renderings of da Vinci's work along with small scale models of all the tools he created to get certain works built. I think my favorite was a clay sculpture based on a man turning into a bird. That's the one I kept going back to. I highly recommend for those in the area as it's the only exhibit of its kind in the states. It runs through January and I think that's it.
Christmas Day we hosted... again. I'm pretty sure we've hosted every Thanksgiving and Christmas since we moved into this house in 2003. With Molly in the picture it is easiest to just be home. I was also more than happy to not have to go anywhere Christmas morning as I watched the rain go almost horizontal thanks to some serious wind. I put a roast in the slow cooker and that was pretty much it. Had everyone else bring the sides, appetizers, and dessert. I'm also more than happy to let others clear the table and clean up. So it was a pretty low key Christmas for me. We stopped doing gifts a few years back, but Molly scored some serious loot. Need to put away her toys from her birthday so she can concentrate on the new stuff and then I can rotate those back in and they will seem new again.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
98.9
Now *that's* a number I like to see. Got more than a little nervous yesterday when Molly woke up from her nap after the doctor's visit and her temp reached 104.1. Luckily the doc was still in the office and talked me down. If she still had a temp this morning I was to take her back in, but it was back down to 99.3 a few hours later and is basically normal today. I think her temp was so high after her nap because she hadn't been drinking much (it was a major struggle with how raw her throat was), she was still in a long sleeve shirt and pants from the outing, and she tends to shove herself into a corner of her crib and tends to wake up sweaty anyway. Justifications, I know, but no mother wants to see 104 anything on a thermometer. I don't care if 105 is the danger zone, 104 is far too close for comfort!
Molly is definitely in better spirits today. Acting like normal. Wanting to play. Talkative. Has ENERGY! She is still not very hungry. We got a yogurt in her last night and another one this morning. We're trying other foods, but yogurt has really been the only thing she's receptive to. At this point eating is eating so I'll take it. She's also had about 20 ounces of milk today (had no interest in her bottle before bed last night so she downed one as soon as she got up this morning), 4-5 ounces of water, and about an ounce or so of Pedialyte. Hey, it's something. She'll take a swig here and there, but doesn't gulp it down like she does water. We've also tried popsicles, but they are more than a little confusing for her. I think she likes the cold and sticks out her tongue, but then she'll bite down and not like the cold on her teeth and push it away. It's a work in progress.
ETA - NOT a fan of the nebulizer/vapor treatment. She just about broke N's heart last night when he gave her a treatment. She struggled less this morning, but was still not having anything to do with the mask actually touching her. We finally came to an agreement where I could hold it about an inch away from her skin as long as she could suck on her finger pointing through her blanket. Unfortunately, I think the blanket absorbed a lot of the vapors, but she wasn't actively batting it away so she got at least something from it.
Molly is definitely in better spirits today. Acting like normal. Wanting to play. Talkative. Has ENERGY! She is still not very hungry. We got a yogurt in her last night and another one this morning. We're trying other foods, but yogurt has really been the only thing she's receptive to. At this point eating is eating so I'll take it. She's also had about 20 ounces of milk today (had no interest in her bottle before bed last night so she downed one as soon as she got up this morning), 4-5 ounces of water, and about an ounce or so of Pedialyte. Hey, it's something. She'll take a swig here and there, but doesn't gulp it down like she does water. We've also tried popsicles, but they are more than a little confusing for her. I think she likes the cold and sticks out her tongue, but then she'll bite down and not like the cold on her teeth and push it away. It's a work in progress.
ETA - NOT a fan of the nebulizer/vapor treatment. She just about broke N's heart last night when he gave her a treatment. She struggled less this morning, but was still not having anything to do with the mask actually touching her. We finally came to an agreement where I could hold it about an inch away from her skin as long as she could suck on her finger pointing through her blanket. Unfortunately, I think the blanket absorbed a lot of the vapors, but she wasn't actively batting it away so she got at least something from it.
Monday, December 29, 2008
the nebulizer has arrived!
It was just dropped off and N is going over everything. It's from Inspiration Elite and it came with a handy dandy kids mask made to look like a chicken... a purple chicken. So, hopefully she'll take to the mask a bit more than she did to the mouth piece. She's asleep now, but we'll give her the next dose the next time she wakes up.
Just got back from the Doctor's...
We actually did a treatment in house for her lungs as she's in the beginning stages of Bronchitis. It was on one of those vapor machines that you see on tv when people have smoke inhalation. Basically the same drug we picked up on Friday, but put into this machine so Molly gets the vapors rather than ingesting the liquid. She was supposed to suck on the end (yeah right) and would have nothing to do with it so I tried to keep it as close to under her nose as I could get while fighting both hands so she would at least breathe in the meds. She eventually gave up fighting and slumped up against me while keeping both hands on the inhaler so I wouldn't get any ideas. The whole process took about 10 minutes and at least half of that time was spent fighting me, but I think she got enough meds to make her feel better as she pretty much fell asleep on me and then again in the car. A company is going to be dropping off our own machine later this afternoon so we can continue to give her treatments.
Molly also has a very bad infection and her throat looks like it's on fire. Doc was very surprised to hear she ate most of a yogurt this morning and then 2/3 of a jar of food for lunch as her throat was that bad. Doc said to keep her on soft foods and make sure she drinks as much as she can. She also suggested getting Pediasure and Pedialyte for the extra calories. Molly has never wanted to drink anything but milk or water so I'm not sure how receptive she'll be, but we'll give it a try. I will definitely pick up some Pedialyte popsicles as I think the cold will help soothe her throat.
Molly is pretty contagious and the doc said to keep her away from other children. Her temperature was back to normal, but we're to keep an eye on it as a return of a fever is a bad sign and could mean pneumonia. Doc said she should appear back to normal in two days, but to keep her on the meds until they run their course. I just dropped off the prescription for 4 different things and N will be picking them up from the pharmacy on his way home as I wanted to get Molly in her bed ASAP.
Poor bug. I hope she feels better soon!
ETA - They did an in-house test for RSV that was negative. So that's one good thing.
Molly also has a very bad infection and her throat looks like it's on fire. Doc was very surprised to hear she ate most of a yogurt this morning and then 2/3 of a jar of food for lunch as her throat was that bad. Doc said to keep her on soft foods and make sure she drinks as much as she can. She also suggested getting Pediasure and Pedialyte for the extra calories. Molly has never wanted to drink anything but milk or water so I'm not sure how receptive she'll be, but we'll give it a try. I will definitely pick up some Pedialyte popsicles as I think the cold will help soothe her throat.
Molly is pretty contagious and the doc said to keep her away from other children. Her temperature was back to normal, but we're to keep an eye on it as a return of a fever is a bad sign and could mean pneumonia. Doc said she should appear back to normal in two days, but to keep her on the meds until they run their course. I just dropped off the prescription for 4 different things and N will be picking them up from the pharmacy on his way home as I wanted to get Molly in her bed ASAP.
Poor bug. I hope she feels better soon!
ETA - They did an in-house test for RSV that was negative. So that's one good thing.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
fever update
Last temp was 101.2 and that was taken a few hours ago. She's been sleeping since about 4 (in her crib) after a couple failed attempts at naps earlier in the day. She kept waking up about a half an hour into them very upset. She didn't eat much lunch, but she did eat something. She goes from not wanting any water to gulping it down, but at least she's getting some fluids. Talked to the nurse practitioner and at Molly's age and weight the danger zone is 105.0 (!). I am going to call the doc as soon as they open in the morning and take her in. In the meantime just going to monitor her temp, make sure she drinks plenty, keep her cool, and hope she gets lots of sleep. Poor little bug. I hope she kicks this soon!
fighting a fever
Molly bug has had a rough couple of days. Her fever spiked up to 102.2 last night, but it's back down to 101.2 this morning. She had been fighting a cold on and off for most of December. Would be fine for several days and then be a bit snotty for a day or two. The Friday before Christmas I decided to take her into the doctor's office to make sure it wasn't anything more than a simple cold since she had been coughing quite a bit. Her lungs were clear, but I got a prescription for Albuterol just in case since we were heading into the weekend and a holiday week. Christmas night she woke up from coughing so hard and I was up with her for a few hours. She just wanted to sleep sitting up and did not want to be put back down in her crib. Friday morning she seemed fine and went down for her morning nap without any issues (although it wasn't very long). Then we headed out to lunch and she just wanted to be held so we knew something was up. We got the prescription filled and put her down for a second nap since she was rubbing her eyes non-stop. That didn't last very long. N ended up sitting back with her in her room for over two hours since she could sleep passed out on him, but started screaming (the very bad scream we don't hear very often) whenever he tried to get her to lie down. Two hours later his shirt was soaked with snot and sweat, but Molly seemed a little more energetic. Perhaps a little too wired. We had read that her prescription can basically turn some kids into crack monkeys so we were a little concerned she was going to go off her rocker and her head would spin around several times. Molly was a tad manic, but no major meltdowns and she slept through the night.
On Saturday we noticed a fever. It was just over 100 so we knew we needed to keep an eye on it. N was also taking a rectal temp (poor Molly bug) as that was surprisingly the one place she wouldn't squirm from. However, we've read it can be a full degree higher and we've also read it can be accurate so we weren't sure when to panic. We've given her a few luke warm baths to cool her down and get her comfortable and she has continued to want to be held upright while sleeping. I was able to get her down for a second nap yesterday laying flat in her crib, but yesterday morning was all about being held. She is still drinking her water, taking her bottle, and eating... although her appetite has definitely waned. Then last night she woke up a few times and was super hot. Temp spiked at 102.2 around midnight and was already coming down when she woke up again around 3.
Today we're just going to lay low and keep an eye on her and monitor her temp. Hopefully it continues to go down and she can just sleep it off. However, if she still has a temp tomorrow I'll be taking her into her doctor's to make sure there isn't something else going on.
ETA - Spoke too soon... she woke up and her temp is now 102.4... on hold with the nurse practitioner...
On Saturday we noticed a fever. It was just over 100 so we knew we needed to keep an eye on it. N was also taking a rectal temp (poor Molly bug) as that was surprisingly the one place she wouldn't squirm from. However, we've read it can be a full degree higher and we've also read it can be accurate so we weren't sure when to panic. We've given her a few luke warm baths to cool her down and get her comfortable and she has continued to want to be held upright while sleeping. I was able to get her down for a second nap yesterday laying flat in her crib, but yesterday morning was all about being held. She is still drinking her water, taking her bottle, and eating... although her appetite has definitely waned. Then last night she woke up a few times and was super hot. Temp spiked at 102.2 around midnight and was already coming down when she woke up again around 3.
Today we're just going to lay low and keep an eye on her and monitor her temp. Hopefully it continues to go down and she can just sleep it off. However, if she still has a temp tomorrow I'll be taking her into her doctor's to make sure there isn't something else going on.
ETA - Spoke too soon... she woke up and her temp is now 102.4... on hold with the nurse practitioner...
Friday, December 26, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas!
This was one of my favorite pictures from the Christmas card photo session we did with Molly at Santana Row. She definitely looks ready to take on the new year!
I hope everyone has a chance to relax and enjoy themselves today.... and eat lots!
Merry Christmas... Happy Hanukkah... Happy Holidays...
Love,
The Hicksons
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