IT'S A GIRL!!!

Things have been quiet in the Baird house (health-wise) for the last two weeks! Thankfully, it looks like we are all well for the time being. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Last week we found out that we are definately having a girl. I was so excited. Now, if we can just get her here :) It seems like it is going to take forever..... We have also picked a name - Alexis Grace.

This week should hopefully be a little quite. Nothing major planned, and nothing really exciting going on at work. Let's just hope we make it through the week with no phone calls for sick kids.

One week from Wed, we will be going out of town - to the Mountains. I get to buy some "Dolly" dresses for the new baby, and for Kaitlyn too. I can't wait!! :) This will be our 1st family vacation. The kids will be joining us, along with my sister, brother-in-law, and mom. We have not been on a family vacation EVER. Kaitlyn is very excited, because we will be in the mountains for her birthday. Little does she know that means she won't have a birthday party, but we will do something there with just us to celebrate. Nice to be off the hook for birthday party this year :)

Does it ever end????

Oh the joys of parenthood, attempting to hold down a full-time job, and being a mother :). Last week I only made it to work 1 1/2 days out of 4 (Monday was a holiday). Tyler was still sick - not with "hand, foot, mouth" because he didn't ACTUALLY have that, but Monday night started diarrea. I was hoping that Tuesday morning he would be fine, so we sent him to school (don't most parents send their kids to school knowing good and well they might be a little under the weather but hope they don't get a call from school, or is that just me?? - please don't judge me :) ) I received 2 phone calls before 12 on Tuesday that he had 3 wet diarrea diapers. Good times. So, I picked him up and took the rest of the day off. My plan was just to work an extra hour Wed-Friday to make up for it, so I went to work on Wednesday. I pulled a 10.5 hour day - was plum exhausted, only to come home to an even more sick little boy. The diarrea had not gotten better, he was not eating very well, drinking some what o.k., but started to get a bad cough and congestion. Thursday I took the day off and had to take him to the dr. What does the dr. do?!?!? Tell me it's a virus, give me cough meds (with steriods) for the cough, alergy meds for the congestion, diaper cream for the major diaper rash, and send me on my merry little way. I thought after 3 days of diarrea, they start on anti-biotics. He said it was a virus, but I thought they give anti-biotics regardless after 3 days.....I sware, I could be a pediatrician.

We survived the weekend and even though he's not back 100%, he's almost there.....

Now, here's the fun part. My husband gets a phone call around 5:15 that Kaitlyn has a 101.6 fever!!! What does that mean??? We have to keep her out of school at least through tomorrow and hope the fever breaks by then and she is o.k. Even worse, she has a very nasty cough. Since she is going to be out tomorrow, I am going to call in the morning to see if I can get her into the dr. and go a head and start meds for whatever the heck she might have as quickly as possible. What has me even more worried is a few people that work with me (not at my center, but within my company in other states/cities) have the Swine Flu - one girl that used to work for my husband as well. They said it either started as bronchitis, or it turned into brochitis. Her cough has me worried she might end up with swine flu...... Paranoid....

Well, let's just hope I don't get sick. It' can't be good (if she has the swine flu) to pass that on to a pregnant person....... I maybe thinking into this too much.... I will stop stressing....

Home again.....

Well, I thought with the long weekend that it would help kick any illness that Tyler may or may not have so that we could return back to school/work. We were fine all weekend long, spent Sunday at the pool and just had a great weekend.... Well, until yesterday. Tyler did not really want to take a nap yesterday...kept waking up and whining every 45 minutes. He started to get a little bit of a fever yesterday and we saw that he is cutting teeth. FUN TIMES!!!! Not long before bed he had a "blow out" so I knew he was not feeling well. This morning he woke up with a loose diaper, but it was not the "blow out" from the night before. He was a little cranky this morning, but I gave him some motrin and sent him to school. I guess I was hoping we could drug him up enough that he would be o.k.

I receved 2 phone calls from the school before noon. They decided to watch his diapers after he had 2 "blow outs" because they knew he was teething. She told me 1 more and he would have to go home. Not even a hour later they called me back......UGGG....

These are the times that you really feel like a "mom." Taking care of sick kids, and trying to figure out how to help them feel better. Do you medicate, do you not. What kind of medicine do you give them? Do you let them have milk or juice? Maybe Sprite?? But is the soda bad for a 2 year old?? Don't we drink Sprite when we have an upset stomach??? I know my son tends to have loose diapers when he drinks juice, regardless of whether he is sick or not. Milk is not supposed to be good on an upset stomach.

I never call out sick, especially for my kids. I have been blessed that they do not get sick that often, or if they do, it's on the weekends. It really stinks that I had to take all day Friday off, we had the long weekend, and now I have to take 1/2 day off today. I feel bad, but what can I do? These are my kids, and if I have to take time off because they are sick, then that is what I have to do.

My last job, if they were sick, I just went across the street to pick them up, and brought them back to work with me. Unfortunately, I can not do that at this job. Luckily, I get paid time off. The only bad thing is, I am trying to save every ounce of it up so that I can stay home as long as I can when I have the new baby. Guess we will cross that hurdle when it comes.

So, hopefully Tyler will be much better tomorrow, and he can go back to school after lunch. My husband is supposed to stay home tomorrow with him, but we will see if that really happens. Let's just hope we get past this hurdle and will be nice and well from here on out!!!

Do pediatricians really know what they are talking about???

I often wonder if pediatricians really do know what they are doing, or are they just guessing so that they give you some kind of diagnosis??

Yesterday I received a call from the daycare that my son was breaking out in some sort of bumps or rash on his face. So, of course, I have to go pick him up from school and take him to the doctor. He was acting completely fine, other than the fact that he had a few bumps on the bridge of his nose, and they were starting to appear around his nose (he has a really runny nose as well). He also had a few around his chin/cheek, but he has been drooling a lot too.

So, we take him to the doctor and wait....and wait...and wait...and wait some more. Then the doctor finally came in. My kids were playing on the floor (hide and go seek and a few other games) when he came in. I of course had to take Tyler so that the doctor could look at him. His immdediate response was "hand, foot, mouth".

What is hand foot mouth you may ask??? Well this is what Web MD says....

"Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is a common childhood illness. It causes sores in the mouth and on the hands, feet, and sometimes the buttocks and legs. Mouth sores can be painful and may make it hard for your child to eat. The disease is not serious, and it usually goes away in a week or so.
It can occur at any time of year, but hand-foot-and-mouth disease is most common in the summer and fall.

What causes hand-foot-and-mouth disease?

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is caused by a virus called an enterovirus.
The virus spreads easily through coughing and sneezing. You can also get it by coming in contact with infected stool, such as when you change a diaper. Often the disease breaks out within a community. Children are most likely to spread the disease during the first week of the illness. But the virus stays in the stool and can sometimes spread to others for several months after the blisters and sores have healed.
It usually takes 3 to 6 days for a person to get symptoms of hand-foot-and-mouth disease after being exposed to the virus. This is called the incubation period.

What are the symptoms?

At first your child may feel tired, get a sore throat, or have a fever of around 101F to 103F. Then in a day or two, your child may get sores or blisters on the hands, feet, mouth, and sometimes the buttocks. In some cases a child will get a skin rash before the blisters appear. The blisters may break open and crust over. The sores and blisters usually go away in a week or so.

How is hand-foot-and-mouth disease diagnosed?

A doctor can tell if your child has hand-foot-and-mouth disease by the symptoms you describe and by looking at the sores and blisters. "


O.k. lets just 1st state that I have not listed any of those "problem areas" as any of where he has his "bumps." The doctor picked up his hands and because they were slightly red, tried to say that he had it on his hands (one of the places you get it). I wanted to say "Are you kidding me??? Did you not notice that they were crawling on the floor when you came in?? No wonder he has red hands!!!" I think they just pick an illness and try to diagnos every kid that comes in with the same thing.

The symptoms also state that you start out with a fever before the blisters/bumps start to appear. My son has not had a fever AT ALL in I don't know how long. He has nothing inside of his mouth, does not have any trouble eating, and the "rash" he did have on his lower abdomen (diaper area) yesterday tured out to be diaper rash (my assumption since I put diaper rash cream on it last night and it was gone before bed time, and still not visable today).

This makes me wonder if pediatricians really do know what is wrong with our kids. Once again, I think they just pick something so they feel good about sending you home. That pediatrician did not ask me many questions, looked and him and just said "this is what he has....."

So, needless to say I am home with both kids today. Oh and get this, I had to call MY doctor to make sure I was o.k., because of their diagnosis. I had to go yesterday to have blood drawn so they could make sure I didn't have it and was fine. Still waiting on the results. Thank God we have a long weekend a head of us. I took the day off today too because I am exhausted, especially after running around yesterday, then having to work late to make up for the extra long lunch break I had to take. I wasn't feeling 100% this morning either....just light headed and dizzy. I'm sure I will be fine. Just frustrated............

Cutting a 2yr old's hair

Cutting a 2 yr. old's hair while he is in the bath tub playing can be a challenge. But, after stuggling in between splashes, it is done and with SUCCESS!! I should have taken a picture so you could see my handy work..... not too shabby. The very 1st time I did it, he did so good, but then he figured out what I was doing by the second time. This time was not too bad, but did get a few "owie's" as I was trying to grab pieces to cut it. That was our venture when we got home from a very long day.

Today was not too bad of a day. I was able to go to the chiropractor to get an hour massage....boy was that great. I took the kids to "MeMaw Susan's" while I had my appointment. They enjoyed getting to go to grandma's house and play. Something different, because they never go over there. She usually comes to our house to watch them, but the chiropractor is right down the road from her house. Just easier to go there.

I have 3 weeks from today before my next doctor's appointment. These once a month ones seem to drag on longer than a month. Will it ever get here?? Maybe the next few will go quicker, because I won't have any "big" ones to pine for (1st heartbeat, 1st sonogram, hoping to find out the gender early, finding out the gender). I am really not looking forward to the gestational diabetes test visit. That stuff they make you drink is SO nasty.

Well, that's semi-boring day..... Not as creative as Angela :)

Contractions at 14 weeks are not fun.....

Yes, contractions...at 14 weeks...NOT GOOD! Well, they are not hard contractions, but they are contractions none the less. The last 2-3 weeks at work have been physically and emotionally stressful, and I think that is the big contributing factor. My doctor last week told me that it is normal and that is just part of my uterus growing, and can have them more the more children you have, but I still worry about it. It's not overly painful, and is just maily pressure, but I also had full on contractions starting at 24 weeks with my son. I just don't want to deal with weekly, bi-weekly, and sometimes even tri-weekly dr. visits again. I am sure it is nothing to worry about, but I have been really emotional the last two days....Completely work related, but emotional non the less.

Anyway, if they get any worse, I will call the doctor, but at this point they are not major. In fact, they were much stronger than this with my son and I didn't even know I was having contractions, so I only recognize it as that because I'm on baby #3.... And who knows, maybe it is just my body growing to accommodate a living thing inside me :) We shall see!!!