Tag Archives: doctor

Are we Crazy?

Posted in Adventures by

Update: Brian took Piper to Children’s this morning and they don’t see a break on the X-ray at all. It sounds like the fuzzy X-ray from Pediatric Associates was inaccurate and she doesn’t need a cast. Seems weird, but I’m super thankful!

There are two reasons I ask this question:

I feel like it’s a new kind of crazy when:

  1. You’ve got two toddlers
  2. Your husband is going on a 10 day vacation in 4.5 weeks, and
  3. You still decide together that it makes a ton of sense to squeeze in a kitchen renovation before the trip

I will say we did a pretty good job of putting together a thorough renovation schedule and budget. So far, we’ve stuck on schedule and while we’ve gone over budget on a couple of things, a couple of things came in under budget. The only variable we didn’t taken into consideration is life. Brian’s been very busy at work, which of course is great. It just makes doing some of the work a little more challenging.

This brings me to my second question of craziness. We took the girls to the park yesterday and Piper was climbing a ladder and fell. She’s always been such a daredevil and it’s always made me nervous. I’ve gotten used to her way and she’s always held her own. Still, I was standing right next to the play toy at the park as she climbed the ladder because it was a little scary. When she fell, I thought she was going to be fine, but she didn’t really bounce back up. I climbed in and picked her up and after I held her and she calmed down, I set her down to walk. But she couldn’t. And it makes me want. to. cry. Since it was about 4 or 5 pm, we brought the girls home, fed them, bathed them and put them to bed. We were thinking a good night’s sleep would help it heal, but she was no better this morning. I took her to the doctor this morning and the unbelievable became reality: she broke her foot. I must say I know I did nothing wrong, but I feel a bit like a failure. Is that just parenthood? It’s so irrational (a.k.a. crazy), but it is the case regardless. The doctor put her foot in a stint and we’re going to Children’s to have it casted tomorrow. What makes me feel better is her demeanor. For the most part she doesn’t act like anything is wrong. It’s only when she tries to walk on it that she’s in pain. Other than that she seems pretty happy and normal.

Of course the first thing Piper did in the car on the ride home from the doctor was try to take the bandage off. Evidence here:    

And if you’re interested in the renovation thus far, here is one of me hand staining our island cabinets: 

And our new floors being installed – notice the still awesome neon yellow light coming through the front door glass: 

And the demo: 1st is slightly before, 2nd is halfway through the demo, 3rd is when everything was taken out.

And me cutting open the wall between the kitchen and the living room: 

Brian and I cleaning up all the sawdust insulation that came down from the attic when we pulled the ceiling off:

Me swinging the sledgehammer during demo:  

Piper’s 6 Months

Posted in Development by

I realize this is a bit late, but the photos are all from when Piper actually turned six months, a couple of weeks ago. The last few weeks have admittedly been pretty exhausting. Right before Piper turned 6 months Brian went to China for a week. The next week I did a 19 hour day, flying to San Francisco and having meetings all day and then flying back. The week after that I took a red eye to Toronto on Wednesday night at midnight and then I flew back that Friday night. Then came Mother’s Day weekend and the time to sit down and compose a post for Piper’s six month birthday has really not come to fruition until now.

We had Piper’s 6 month appointment on May 5th. She weighed in at just over 15 pounds.

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The doctor was visibly impressed with her strength and muscle tone. When she pulled herself up on the table I think he had to double check that this was her six month appointment. As I have mentioned, I’m pretty sure she’s some sort of super human, especially considering she’s not really that thick of a babe. Here is her checkup card with all the specs.

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All that writing at the bottom is because after the nurse administered the vaccine, the doctor came in to tell us that she administered the wrong one. This has been something that has crossed my mind before; I’ve always wondered if this happens. The nurses and doctors are just running from room to room, giving tons of shots in a day. I was thinking it’s crazy they don’t mess things up. Fortunately for us, it doesn’t sound like it was a very serious mistake. They administered a Pediarix instead of a Pentacel, which basically means that because it hadn’t been 8 weeks since Piper’s last Hep B, she will have to have an extra Hep B in her series and we have to get a Hib next time. The obvious question is whether this is very bad or not. It sounds like it’s not. The next question is whether it’s grounds to explore other doctors. I started the exploration via a benefit at work called Expert Medical Opinion, so we’ll see what their guidance is. Our pediatrician came very highly recommended from our prior pediatrician, as well as several other parents, so it would be sad to have to find someone new. Regardless, I will always check the labels of shots going into my children’s bodies moving forward.

Here is Piper’s six month photo – just a super happy active clam. We are really starting to see her personality come out and she just wants to play nonstop. She really can’t sit still at all. She’s a very laid back baby, in that not much gets to her. But being confined definitely is one of the few things. She is a woman on the go and can’t nobody hold her back. She’s just awesome. Again, now if she could only sleep through the night…do you see a theme with my requests? Sleep, that’s really all I want. “Pretty please,” as Ellie would say.

This lady is on the go...

This lady is on the go…

 

Piper’s Four Months!

Posted in Development, Wellness by

Piper turned four months old on Sunday, so we did her typical monthly photo shoot (see below). Today we went to the doctor for her four month checkup and everything looks good. She’s doing great developmentally and growth wise. Here are her stats:

Height: 25″/75%

Weight: 13 lbs, 7 oz/25-50%

Head: 16″/25-50%

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Developmentally, she is rolling (see previous post) and Ruoyun said she scooted about five feet yesterday, but I’m not sure if that was assisted or not. It’s a very exciting time to see all these firsts! Honestly though, the only thing we’re really hoping and praying for is the day she starts sleeping all the way through the night.

Our doctor also gave us the green light to introduce foods. He said waiting until six months is really a thing of the past and they’re starting to find evidence that introducing foods earlier, around four months, may actually be beneficial for food allergies, etc. He also said sometimes when parents wait until six months the baby has lost interest in solids, but that’s not super common.

We had a vaccine today at the doctor appointment and it was so fabulous! Oh, is that an oxymoron? I know it’s weird, but I nursed her while they gave her the shot and she didn’t wince or cry. It was wonderful. I hope she doesn’t get a fever or have any side effects. When we dropped her off at her daycare, Ruoyun told us she would give her some massage today – that makes me so happy!

Here is her four month photo and a compilation of every month until now:

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Piper’s One Month Birthday

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Piper turned one month old last week, which is always a big milestone for parents. With Ellie one month seemed like an eternity, but this time we’re trying to get things to slow down. I just love Piper’s little size and her cute little quirks. I’m really enjoying her infant-hood and I don’t mind if it lasts awhile longer! Piper is quite the strong little squirt. I can tell she’s already trying to roll over and climb up me when I hold her. At her one month checkup she had great growth. She weighed in at 8 pounds 15 ounces:

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We’re also doing the traditional monthly photos, which we didn’t do the first time around. Here is the one month photo:ImageIn other news, Ellie’s new favorite thing to say is “all the pretty lights, Mommy!” whenever we drive by a business or a house with Christmas lights on. I just love it so much. Every time that little peanut speaks (which is very frequently these days) it just melts my heart. It’s so nice to be off for the holidays and to be able to really savor these moments! Here is a video of Ellie practicing her ABC’s:

Piper’s Firsts

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The first two and a half weeks with Piper have just flown by. It’s a-whole-nother ball game when you have an infant with a toddler in the house; we’re keeping very busy with the two of them.  It’s definitely comforting to have done this newborn phase before. We’re not nervous about every single little thing. At the same time, we’re focused on giving as much of a comparable newborn experience to Piper as we did to Ellie. We want to make sure and hold her the same amount of time, talk to her just as much, etc. However, there are some less crucial things we haven’t been as concerned about. For instance, yesterday I gave Piper her first bath – she was two weeks and a half weeks old! I think we gave Ellie her first bath within the first week. Both of them hated every minute of it, so I’m not really too concerned that we waited with Piper…babies smell so yummy anyway!

We also had Piper’s first doctors visit last week. I can tell she’s been growing really well and I know she’s been eating great, but Brian and I were a little concerned about her apparent tummy discomfort. I liked that our doc asked a lot of questions and explained the possible issues: colic, milk protein allergy, or acid reflux. He said based on what we told him he wasn’t concerned about the last two and that she was probably just having some mild colic because her tummy is still developing. He suggested continuing to emulate the womb experience via the 5 S’s. He said at six weeks we’ll start to see improvement with her discomfort. We also saw our midwife the day after and she recommended a probiotic, which will help her stomach bacteria process food better.

Piper’s weight was 7 lbs., 11 ounces and she had grown a whole inch! Her head circumference was in the tenth percentile. Other than that everything looks great and she is a healthy strong babe. In fact, she’s been holding her head up so well I thought it might be interesting for her to try some tummy time yesterday. I was amazed she didn’t flip out right away like most babies during their first few months. She seemed to really enjoy looking around. Here is a quick clip of it:

We also did a newborn photo shoot last week, which I am so excited about. We didn’t do newborn photos with Ellie and I really regret it. I’m glad we were able to find a quality photographer for a reasonable price and she provides us with all the digital files by next Monday. It was hotter than a mo-fo in the studio room, but it was totally worth it. You can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be sharing soon.  Here is her website in case you’re interested or just want to peruse some adorable little baby pics.

The Rocky Mountains, and that they Are!

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We planned our trip to Colorado back at the end of 2012 and we took into consideration many of the things we learned with our first traveling experience with Ellie. Yes, she can walk, so we figured a quick two hour flight wouldn’t be too bad and the fact that we were going in the opposite time zone direction would be good so she would fall asleep later and wake up later. We booked the trip with my mom and her boyfriend (Grandy) and thought we were smart to stay in Denver for a day so we could visit with our aunts and get Ellie acclimated to the altitude before going up to the mountains.

All good intentions, but unfortunately good intentions do not equal good outcomes. Tutu (my mom) and Grandy had to cancel the trip due to their impending living situation and new job. Long story, but nonetheless, we were coming to visit family, so not the end of the world. The flight was fine, Ellie was happy. We spent the next day at the aquarium with Aunt Jackie, which was a blast. Then we headed up to the mountain with Ellie. While only 3000 feet above Denver, Ellie did not acclimate to the altitude very well. 

The day after we got up there she seemed okay and the next morning we went for a snowshoe. It seemed to be all down hill from there – no pun intended. Ellie became really fussy and she developed a bit of a fever. Being the adequate parents we are, we had our baby Tylenol on us and gave Ellie a bit of that. She seemed to wax and wane, but at around 5 am she woke up with a temp above 103 and she vomited. With that, we were off to the nearest ER.

After a plethora of tests – a nasal swab, a chest x-ray – it was determined that she had altitude sickness and acute bronchitis. They put her on some oxygen and advised we keep her on it and get down to lower altitude as soon as possible. This was incredibly disappointing, since we were really looking forward to spending a lot more time with family up in Minturn. 

We got Ellie down to lower altitude yesterday and spent the entire day today in our hotel room. She seems to be doing better now, but oh my goodness, what a roller coaster ride. It is so incredibly difficult to see our baby have a difficult time getting air and not knowing when enough is enough. We were so grateful to talk through the situation with our nurses through the hotline at Ballard Pediatric. We felt so much better after that conversation. It’s just insanely unnerving to hear that our baby could start to turn blue and that’s a sign to go back to the hospital. I just want to be like “oh really, no shit!” Being a parent is so tough sometimes. But it’s so rewarding at other times and it’s always worth every minute. I’m so grateful to have such a great partner to work through these tough situations and such a trooper of a daughter. She could only be slightly more of a trooper if she didn’t try to spit out every drop of Tylenol we try to put in her body and freak out every time we put saline in her nose and suck out her boogers. We’ll take what we can get though! 

Six Months

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It’s Ellie’s six month birthday today! Everyone says it’s so crazy how fast time flies, but I feel like our little Ellie Bean has been with us forever, so knowing she’s six months old is both amazing but also surprising that she’s only been on Earth for six months.

We went to the doctor yesterday for her six month checkup, where I snapped the pic below. I think she’ll kill me for that when she’s older.  Doc said she’s very strong and very healthy. We talked about sleep, food and baby-proofing the house, something we’ll have to think about getting done this weekend.  Ellie’s in the 50th percentile for head circumference, the 60th percentile for weight and the 85th percentile for height.  We also had a wonderful nurse do her shot and Ellie didn’t cry at all.  I couldn’t really understand the nurse that well, but she made funny faces and noises, which I think were distracting for little LuLu.

Our next big adventure: first plane ride on September 19 – we’re going to Maui! We’re all very excited, especially Ellie, who can’t wait to sport her adorable swim suits!

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