Category: Mothering

Mommy and Ryan Day

Today, Ryan and I spent practically the entire day together, which has been what I think has been the first time this has happened since Cole was born- 19 months ago.

My mom is in “the big city” for a visit, so we met up with her, and my sister for some last minute shopping. My mom also didn’t do any Christmas shopping before she arrived, since she didn’t want to pack all that stuff!

Ryan told me before we left, that he really “needed some mama time.” We met my mom, sister, sister-in-law, and niece, at a pretty cool toy store.

Our local toy store has a train table set up, but this toy store, “downtown in the big city,” had a train table, a Lego table, a pirate ship table, and a doll house set up. Ryan was so happy just playing. Of course, it was crazy busy, and I didn’t venture away from where he was playing, so I didn’t get to look around too much, but did manage to find this neat, realistic toy trumpet for him, that I know he will love for his birthday. I even managed to “sneak” back and have it beautifully gift wrapped.

My mom and I wanted to get some play food for Cole, since he will be receiving a cash register from Santa 🙂 , and a shopping cart from my brother and sister-in-law. I had seen a play food set from Melissa & Doug at our local toy store about a month ago, and when I went in yesterday, they were completely sold out. I even tried a few more stores in my town with no luck.

So my mom and I weren’t very optimistic we would find the set we were looking for, but we were thrilled when we saw this: the set we were looking for. It even had 12 pieces, and the set I had seen previously, only had 10 pieces. I know this says for ages 3 and up, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what could be a choking hazard. Each piece is solid wood construction, and there aren’t any lids that come off, and the pieces are big. Maybe it is something on the crate. At any rate, I know Cole will just love playing with these.

Back to Ryan…we had so much fun together. He kept kissing me, holding my hand, and thanking me for bringing him along. He told me he was having a fun day. He was so good too- he didn’t cry, or otherwise fuss when it was time to leave the toy store. I told him we would go to Jamba Juice and get a smoothie, since that is his favorite treat.

We stopped where we thought there was one, but it had closed. So he had to wait, until we got to another mall, and he didn’t whine or fuss. He fell asleep on the way to the mall, so I stayed in the car for 15 minutes or so, and let him sleep a bit. When I woke him up, he was fine, and we went to get our smoothie.

He climbed up to a tall table, and kneeled on his knees, and just grinned from ear-to-ear. He would sip his smoothie, and smile at me. At one point he said, “I love you Mommy…this is the best day ever.” That just melted my heart.

Before we left to meet back up with our group, I realized how much I love this little boy. He means everything to me. As he grows, he doesn’t need me as much as he did, or even as much as Cole needs me now, but I am so happy that he can tell me when he does want to spend time with me. It is nice to be reminded that he still does need me, but now it is in different ways, and it is so fun to enjoy him as a little person- as a little boy now, instead of a baby.

I realized how much I miss us just having time one-on-one. We will definitely have to have another Mommy and Ryan day soon, but today was the highlight of the entire holiday season for me. Spending quality time, with my sweet boy- it doesn’t get better than that!

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Cole Health Mothering

Cole’s Latest Illness

I am beyond being in disbelief, but Cole is sick again. He started on Sunday night with a high fever. At one point it was around 103. It finally broke Monday night, and then on Tuesday, he started to break out in a rash around his mouth and diaper area only.

He actually had his follow up appointment that was rescheduled from last week, for his croup and lung issues on Tuesday. His lungs had cleared up, and our doctor, Dr. B., said the rash looked like a yeast infection from the antibiotics. He suggested I give him some Kefir, to bring up the good bacteria count in his gut. He noticed that his tonsils were inflamed and debated doing a step throat culture, but we decided not to right now. Most babies don’t get strep throat before age 2, according to Dr. B.

I am supposed to call Dr. B., back tomorrow and let him know how Cole is doing. He said if he still had a temperature, and seemed like his throat was still sore, he’d call in another antibiotic, but at this point I think he is over the worse of the sore throat, and he hasn’t had a fever again.

The rash is bugging me though. Yesterday it started to appear on his back and upper legs, but very faintly. My mother-in-law pointed out there are a lot of baby viruses that result in rashes, and we probably just have to wait it out. The good news is, the rash isn’t bothering Cole at all. He is totally happy, and doesn’t even know the rash is there- he isn’t trying to scratch or pick at it. I guess this is a case where it truly looks worse than it is.

After telling one of my friends about this today, she pointed out that it could be roseola. After reading up on it, it probably is- but maybe a milder version, since Cole doesn’t have the rash over his entire body, and only around his mouth and diaper area, is the rash red. So maybe he does have roseola, and then the yeast infection on top of that as well- who knows anymore!

I am at my wits end with Cole getting, what seems like every illness! He just gets better and then one day later he is down with something else. Roseola says kids come down with it 10 days after they are exposed. I don’t even remember what or where we even were, where he could have been exposed.

I am going to work with my friend who is an herbalist, in trying to build his immunity up. She mentioned that he may just need some more immune support, and when I told my boss today what was happening, she reminded me how weak babies this age immune systems can be.

She said her nephew who is three now, was sick every week from the time he was 1 until he was 2.5- she said she wasn’t kidding. That made me feel a bit better, but I hope that is not in store for Cole. This really bites, one sickness after another.

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Cole Family & Friends Mothering Parenting

ER Vist for Croup

We ended up taking Cole into the ER last night at midnight, after he started having a lot of trouble breathing.

Turns out he has croup, although he never was making the “barking” noises, that is a classic symptom of croup. He sounded more like he was wheezing, and even a nurse said he sounded like he was breathing like an asthmatic.

After trying two rounds of the steroid breathing treatments, they weren’t working, and Cole was running a fever of 104.5- so the Dr.’s decided to admit him, and test him for secondary infections & the flu as well. They said his ear was really inflamed & thought he may have had an ear infection too.

It was a miserable night- they poked him, prodded him, drew blood, gave him shots, (they wanted to do an IV line, and I asked them not to unless it was absolutely necessary. I hate IV’s, and they agreed to just give him the shots, but at least he wasn’t tied down to an IV line- he would have hated that more) , and he was just so sick! I was in tears the entire time. Finally at 5 am, his fever went to 101, and it seemed like the treatments were finally starting to work.

Joe went home to rest, and I stayed w/ Cole until 9am; dozing off and on, until the pediatrician came to check up on him. Fortunately, he was much better but he still has the raspy, stridor, breathing, but the doctors say it isn’t in his chest, or lungs, but in his upper respiratory system, which isn’t as bad.

Cole’s doctor said they wanted us to stay until Sunday for observation, but said we could take him home today since we live so close to the hospital, but stressed we needed to watch him very carefully. Evidently croup can come back, even when you think it is under control, and it is worse at night than during the day.

The pediatrician today said he didn’t think he had an ear infection, but it was the high fever that was causing his ears to be inflamed, and all his blood work came back fine- viral- but fine.

That is how croup is caught- from a virus. One nurse said 100 kids could have the same cold from a virus, and about 2 or 3 will go on to develop croup. The doctors and nurses said once kids are about 4, it is very rare for them to develop it, since their airway passages become larger. Obviously adults don’t get croup, but when adults develop the virus, they get it in the form of laryngitis.

So, what an ordeal! I have never been that scared before regarding my child’s health. I still am worried he still has the raspy stuff, but they say his steroid medication will help.

Before we took him in last night, I was reading about croup on Dr. Sears’ website. I was very impressed that everything I had read on the website regarding croup and the treatment of it, was what the hospital, doctor’s, and nurses were doing.

When we were deciding if we should take Cole in, I also placed a call into my local children’s hospital, which has a free 24 hour nurse help line. She actually listened to Cole’s breathing, and told me it was croup over the phone, and to take him to the ER. I feel like we had excellent care, and the doctors and nurses did everything they could to make Cole (and Mom and Dad) comfortable, and they did a very thorough job in making sure Cole didn’t have any other causes for his high fever.

Even though Cole’s “barking” symptoms weren’t quite as described, if your child sounds like he is wheezing, having trouble breathing, is breathing faster, drooling excessively, or the area right above his breastbone is caving in while breathing, or his ribs are really working while breathing, take him in. Cole had all these sypmtoms. We obviously waited too long. Joe really picked up on the abnormal breathing, but since Cole didn’t have that barking seal noise, it just threw me. I thought he just had a lot of congestion in his throat, but looking back now, it was more than congestion. No one said it, but I think Cole’s breathing was getting so bad, since we had waited almost 2 days to take him in.

At any rate, I have been listening to his breathing tonight and he sounds so much better than yesterday. What a difference 24 hours can make. I hope he is over the worst of it, and now we can all get back to resting and healing.

Druing all of this, Ryan was spending the night at his grandparents with his cousins last night, so I guess if this had to happen, at least it was last night. Ryan’s uncle and grandpa took the kids today ice skating, window shopping at a train store, to lunch, to play miniture golf, and then a train ride at the mall! Ryan was in heaven. I think he had the best day ever. We are so lucky to have such wonderful family near by to help out in cases like this. It helps so much, in not having to worry about the other child, so we could focus on Cole.

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Cole Mothering

Cole at 18 Months

Cole is exactly 18 months old today! I can hardly believe it-where has the time gone?

Cole’s personality is really starting to shine. I noticed a few months ago, he is a little comedian. He loves to make people laugh. If he hears one of us laughing he’ll try to copy whatever we were just doing, to keep us laughing. One of the big ways he gets laughs is he’ll take the kitchen towel off the oven rack, cover his head with it, and then walk around the house, until we say, “Who is that little ghost?” or “Where’s Coley?” Then he’ll rip the towel off his head, giggles abounding.

He also loves books. He’ll sit and look at books for fifteen minutes at a time, no one reading to him- he’ll just study the pictures.

Like most 18-month old, he adores Thomas. Whenever we turn on a Thomas DVD, he starts bouncing around and dancing. He also likes music, and songs, and sings along in his own little babbling, to most songs.

Cole can say, Da-da,” and “Mama” right now. I have heard him say, “no,” “bye,” and “water,” but he doesn’t say those consistently yet.

He certainly has a mind of his own. His grandmother pointed out the other day, that when he doesn’t want to do something, he is as stubborn as they come! That is so true!

As much as he is stubborn though, he gives at least 100% more back in his love. He will hug us constantly throughout the day, for no reason. He’ll just come up to me and want a hug and a kiss, and then he’ll be back off to whatever he was doing. He absolutely lights up when he sees the people he loves, and he starts shrieking with joy and excitement. His love and attitude rubs off on me. I find when I am away from Cole for a few hours, I really start to miss him, and I need a hug from him.

I was thinking about how much love Cole has in his heart the other day, and it dawned on me that no one has ever shown me that much open affection in my entire life. My parents were pretty affectionate and always told us they loved us, and Joe and I are affectionate, but Cole can take his affection and love, and just run with it, and he doesn’t hold anything back.

During the first year of his life, which was difficult since he was a high-needs baby, sitting up with him at all hours of the night, I often wondered why I had this particular child, what was he here to teach me, and what was I supposed to learn from him?

I am sure I will keep discovering more answers to these questions, but after having my Coley for a year and a half, I know I had him to teach me about love- he teaches me that it is okay to be open and free with affection and love, every day. He teaches me that even during the hardest, darkest times, the sun will shine again, and it comes out even brighter and more beautiful than before.

I believe that we are all born with that free, unrestricted love, but because of what life throws at us, it gets buried in us, and can be very hard to find again. Cole has taught me that it is worth the effort to find that- after all, he shows it to me every day in his smile, his hugs, and kisses. He truly is a special gift- a gift of love.

Happy 18 months, Coley! I can’t wait to keep learning from you, and I love you with all my heart!

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Current Events Mothering

Dumb & Dumber

I just came across this “story,” and I am speechless, really. All I could think of was Dumb & Dumber. I know that isn’t very nice, but read the story (it’s short), and see what first pops into your mind.

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UPDATE: Today (11/17/07) I read another account of this on MSN, that said Heidi Klum and Ellen were totally joking and kind of making fun of Britney Spears. So without seeing the actual clip, it is hard to say for sure if she was serious or not. At any rate, if they were joking, that makes me feel a lot better about Heidi Klum. 🙂

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