Almost 2

I can’t believe that in less than a week, I will have a two year old. When we were in the emergency room and a nurse took Fiona’s heart rate and oxygen level readings, I started having flashbacks. Her O2 was fine, 98-99%, but her heart rate was 170 beats per minute. I half expected them to come and take her away, put her in an isolette with a bunch of wires and tubes, and tell me I would have to go home without her. Just the smell of the detergent they use on the sheets took me back to the days of having to wash my hands for three minutes with horrible soap that my hands still have not recovered from, and the chairs that were so uncomfortable, but that I spent hours sitting in. I wondered where the monitors were and why I wasn’t hearing any beeping noises. It was a little disconcerting.

Anyway, I have a bunch of gifts to give Fiona this year. More than I ever have or probably ever will. I’ve been collecting them for the last six months or so, as sales occur or as the mood fits me.

Art supplies:

  

A storage box that has a chalkboard on one side and a dry erase board on the other:

A set of brushes:

All of these will be nice complements to the easel we bought her at IKEA, that is currently sitting behind her rocking chair. It comes with a roll of paper that can be draped over the front. This photo is from the internet:

New cooking toys: 

 

She still plays with her kitchen quite a bit, but lately is more interested in my cooking “toys” so I bought her some that look like mine, but are Fiona-sized. Sometimes she will begin to “cook” something in her kitchen, then decide I need to also, and will drag me to kitchen, point at the stove, and say “Mommy cook-y” which means “Go cook something Mommy.”

We also have a mystery gift from Aunt Cathy. It arrived a few weeks ago, but I am waiting until Fiona’s actual birthday to let her open it.

We also bought her an American Doll baby doll. It was really expensive. I am bowing to pressure from John and my friend. Fiona plays with one at Nicole’s house and also she played with one at Jenny and Lyla’s house when Jenny watched her (when my mom broke her elbow). Fiona just loves these dolls. John thinks it is because they are more lifelike than her current dolls, that either stuffed animals or hand sewn by my grandmother or other relatives. I didn’t have lifelike dolls and I turned out ok (stop snickering Mommy and John) but I guess Fiona will have a dolls with fingers and toes and eyes that open and close. The doll will have similar features as Fiona – brown hair and blue eyes with light skin. It is almost as big as she was when she was born.

All that said, I draw the line at Betsy Wetsy dolls, and have no intention of getting her anything that wets or poops. I hope she plays with it a lot.

Have a good week and Happy Memorial Day to all those who served or are currently serving their countries!

Sick

Saturday night we made a trip to the Emergency Room with Fiona. She woke up at 6:15 with a 103.7 degree fever. She was acting normally and even ate breakfast, but we still gave her ibuprofen. She seemed quite happy until 12:15. She fell asleep in the car and we transferred her to her bed in her clothes and her jacket. She woke up crying and felt really hot. We took her temperature and it was 105.2 degrees!!! We immediately took off her clothes and started patting her with a damp cloth. The fever dropped one degree in ten minutes. We also gave her another dose of ibuprofen and within half an hour (probably before the ibuprofen even had a chance to kick in) she was fine, playing outside, nibbling on snacks and drinking lots of water. We went for a drive in the afternoon and when we returned, at about 4:45 the fever was up again. This time is 103.3. We have Tylenol and called the on-call nurse at the pediatrician’s office. While on the phone with her (about 10 minutes after the Tylenol) Fiona vomited all over me. Her fever rose to 104.4 and the on-call nurse told us to take her to the emergency room, and in fact, to go directly there any time she has a fever over 105.

So we did.

It was an interesting experience. They see the babies a lot faster than the non-critical adults. She was weighed and her temperature taken in triage, then we sat in a chair and waited for a bed to open up. Within a few minutes, we were assigned a bed in a hallway, next to another sick baby whose symptoms sounded just like Fiona’s. The doctor examined her pretty quickly. He temperature was increasing and she was pretty lethargic by the time he came to see her. He got a good look in her nose, eyes, ears, and throat, and all looked clear. A very nice nurse, the same nurse that took care of my mother when she broke her elbow, collected urine from Fiona by using a catheter and another person swabbed her nose. Then, we sat and waited for test results.

John thought is would take a long time, days maybe, but I knew that we would have them very quickly. I watched enough hospital shows to know that all diagnoses and treatments, however difficult, can be reached and administered in less than an hour, with time to spare for a parting message. OK, maybe real life is not like that, but I knew it wouldn’t take that long because I know other people who have been in similar situations.

After the catheter, Fiona perked up quite a bit, even though her temperature was still on the rise. Eventually she was given a mega dose of ibuprofen and Tylenol, and a cup of apple juice. She also ate a granola bar and then sat happily playing with her beads.

Eventually all test results came back – negative of course. She doesn’t have RSV, influenza, a urinary tract infection or any infection that they can detect. Fiona has a random baby virus. There are a lot going around right now. Eventually the doctor let us take her home, after she perked up and charmed him and the nurse. Here she is in her cute little hospital gown that they let us keep:

 

On the other side of the screen in the background was a little girl with a very nasty sounding cough. I wanted to be as far away from her as possible. She was getting nebulizer treatments and even though we have our own DoggyNeb, I would rather it collected dust in the closet than have to use it.

Through all this Fiona was a real trooper. She hardly cried during the urine collection. Just said “Up please” a few times. She let the nurse take her temperature without squirming, didn’t fuss during the nose swabs, and did whatever tricks the doctor asked her to perform (open mouth, turn head, thread the red, no the yellow bead).

All in all it wasn’t a horrible experience and I am glad we took her, if only for the piece of mind of having a doctor examine and rule out anything serious. I am impressed with how well she handled everything, but wonder if it isn’t because she spent the first seven weeks of her life in the same hospital, being poked and prodded by various medical professionals. It was funny and sad when the admitting person asked us if Fiona had ever been there, and before I could say no, John said, “She used to live here.” He explained how she was born early and was in the NICU for almost two months. It was a little painful to have to tell people she was a preemie because it is part of her medical history and for some reason still needs to be taken into consideration, even though she hasn’t been back as a patient since she was discharged in July 2010.

Fiona is feeling a lot better today (Monday). Yesterday she had a fever in the afternoon. She slept all night last night and seems better today, but isn’t eating a lot and is complaining about her mouth hurting. She has a funny rash around her mouth that we think is related to the fever. She is also drooling like Niagara Falls. I am sure there will be weight loss, but at this point, I am not overly concerned. She is eating a little, drinking milk and water, and apple juice (the ER nurse told us to give it to her because there were ketones in her urine, meaning she is not taking in enough calories and her body is metabolizing fat).

I am hoping the fevers are gone for good and that the rash clears up. We will take her to the doctor tomorrow or Wednesday, whenever the first appointment is available. Until then, we continue to be house bound, reading books, going for walks, playing in the backyard, and building towers.

Cross your fingers for a quick recovery!

Lately…

Time for a new car seat?

 

She is very obviously too big for the infant seat, but loves closing the buckles on it.

One day she wanted to play with the lights but I didn’t want to hold her up. I told her to get her stool, thinking she would get the small stool from her room. Instead, she opted for the closer and bigger bathroom stool. I heard some clunking, then saw a stool walking out of the bathroom. I think it yielded at least 10 minutes of entertainment for her.

We took Fiona on a hike at a local park. The wildflowers were in full bloom. The hike was short – 0.6 miles, but Fiona walked the whole way! Our little hiker! She wore the hat the whole day:

 

 

A lot of time was spent playing in the dirt along the way and occasionally throwing rocks:

 

Stopping to smell the flowers:

Eating a snack:

  

She was so excited to run up this hill, and then run back down it:

We went to the Strawberry Festival and she ate corn on the cob:

These are from a year ago:

That was her first corn on the cob experience. She has loved it ever since.

Drinking a strawberry smoothy because it was really REALLY hot:

Sitting in our favorite cafe:

John’s view:

 

She asked me to lie on the floor with her:

   

I think this post has the greatest number of photos with me in them. John was looking at the camera one night and decided that we need to take more photos of me with Fiona. I am always the one behind the camera so I am not in the photos. I need evidence that I was actually there during her childhood, so he is determined to take more photos. I support that!