Yup, sick again

Ugh. Tommy has been sick again. On Thursday morning he woke up just in time for me to change his diaper, get him dressed, and take him to daycare. I did so, then out the door we went. I had taken the morning off of work to go to the dentist to get a crown for my root canal. On our way to daycare, Tommy pooped (which he never does) and needed to be changed. I took him out of his carseat and laid him on the changing table in his room. The lead teacher came over and insisted that she do it (bless her) so I finished putting his bottles in the refrigerator and signing him in. I went over to kiss him goodbye as the teacher pulled up his onsie to reveal a nasty rash all over his torso.

The director of the daycare came in and suggested that I get it checked out so I cancelled my dentist appointment (they were not happy with me but oh well, they'll get over it) and was lucky enough to get a 9:00 appointment at the pediatrician's office.

I got in to see Tommy's specific pediatrician and she diagnosed him with roseola due to his lack of any other symptoms. At the last minuted, she decided to do a quick strep test to be sure she wasn't missing anything and was shocked when it came back positive. The diagnosis was changed to Scarlet Fever.

So I called work and took off the rest of the day and picked up Tommy's prescription for Amoxicillan and we snuggled for the rest of the day on the couch. The daycare policy is 24 hours of antibiotics but since we had our first dose at 9:45am, they let me bring him on Friday at 7:30am. He was in good spirits and napped well. His first two bottles went well but he flat out refused his third bottle. No big deal, I figured I could just give it to him when we got home. He drank about a half ounce before he spit out the nipple and cried. I laid back on the couch and he laid his head on my chest and we cuddled.

And then it happened.

Tommy picked up his head and projectile vomited all over my chest. I mean, this child is 17lbs and the amount of vomit would have rivaled the amount I had seen adults lose. It seeped through my shirt, my tank, and my bra. It was all down the front of me, in my jeans and even my underwear. The couch under me was coated in vomit. I yelled for Bill to come help me (he was conveniently in the bathroom when this all occurred) and he rushed in with a towel which he used to wrap up Tommy and proceeded to get him cleaned and changed while I showered.

Tommy pretty much slept on and off all of last night. He just could not seem to get comfortable. He didn't want to eat. He didn't want me to hold him. He didn't want me to put him down. He was just miserable.

This morning I tried to feed him several times and every time he would nurse for about a minute or two then refuse. Bill tried to give him a bottle and he drank less than an ounce. This really started to worry me so I called the doctor and they got him in at 10:45.

At 10:00 I tried to feed Tommy again and this time he ate hungrily for about 5 minutes before falling asleep.

The doctor checked him all out and noticed that one of his bottom front teeth seems to be trying to poke through. She determined that this was the reason he wasn't eating. She told us to give him Tylenol and to feed him whenever he seems hungry.

We gave him some Tylenol when we got home and for the next 4 hours he cluster fed. He was probably so hungry! Then he took a long nap and woke up almost a new baby. He was a little fussy this evening but is now sleeping.

It's so hard knowing something isn't right with your baby but not knowing just what it is. The worst part for me is seeing him uncomfortable or even in pain and not knowing what to do. I gave him some Tylenol before bed in hopes that he'll get a good amount of sleep tonight. I'm planning on going to get some teething tabs tomorrow. I've heard good things about them and I'll update on their effects on Tommy.

For now, I'm going to see if I can catch up on some much needed sleep, myself!

A Day in the Life

Jen over at Stay At Home {Mom}ents challenged the Bump mommies to a Day in the Life blog post. I thought, why not? Let's give it a try! So here goes. (By the way, all pics are from my iPhone and not amazing)

5:45am My alarm goes off. I was already awake because Tommy woke up at 5:30 looking for his pacifier.

6:00am I drag myself out of bed and begin to pump and do a little lesson planning.

6:30am Tommy wakes up for the day.

I get him dressed and ready for the day.

Tommy had some morning Jumperoo time while I finish getting ready for work.

7:15am All of our bags are packed and ready to go, my pump, my work bag, my lunch, and Tommy's bottles and food for daycare.

I pack and start the car,

because it's a balmy 14 degrees outside with a windchill of 3. Brrr

7:20am We're all bundled up and ready to brave the cold.

7:25am We arrive at daycare which is located in a wing of another elementary school in my district.

It's for kids of employees only and I love it!

7:35am I'm off to work. I have a very typical morning, prep for the day, meeting with my grade level team, greet my class as they enter, and a small group reading lesson.

10:00am The kids are at their special (gym day) which means time for me to pump.

I pump in a small closet in the school. It's not cozy but it locks and has an outlet!

10:40am Back to teaching!

12:05pm Lunch which means it's time to pump again.

4:45pm My work day is finally over. I return home to my sister playing with Tommy! (Bill was able to pick Tommy up from daycare)

5:45pm I nurse Tommy then he takes a short nap while we snuggle. I missed him all day!

6:15pm Tommy wakes up and Auntie JoJo feeds him some pears. Mmm

Then we play for a while.

7:30pm PJ time then nursing again before bed.

8:00pm Tommy is asleep. I make up bottles for tomorrow.

8:15pm I make a bagel with E arth Balance for dinner since I' m not super hungry.

8:20pm A little bit of American Idol then bed.

So there it is! A day in the life on Longmeadow! Nothing glamorous but I love it!

Continuing to Breastfeed Pros & Cons

While pregnant I just assumed I would breastfeed my baby. I didn't have any clue how it would go and even though I went to a class, I had really no idea what I was getting myself into.

One week in, things were going ok but I was crazy emotional. When Tommy was 2 weeks old, I told Bill I would only nurse until he was 3 weeks old, then I was done. I hated it. At 3 weeks, I decided to stick it out 1 more week because I was afraid that if I stopped, Tommy would get his days and nights confused again (I read somewhere that BFing actually helps to get babies on the right schedule). When Tommy was 4 weeks old, I took him to the doctor for a clogged tear duct and mentioned to the nurse practitioner that I was thinking about stopping. She was very supportive. She said that if I wanted to stop, then I could, that I had given Tommy 4 solid weeks and it wasn't for everyone. She gave me a sample of formula and wished me luck.

I started giving Tommy 1 bottle of formula a day but it wasn't going well (wrote about it here, here, here, here, and here). Once I cut dairy out of my diet and realized what a difference it made in Tommy, I was determined to make it to 6 months.

So here we are now, 3 weeks from my goal and I can't decide if I want to continue or stop in February. I decided I need to make a pros and cons list and see if that helps.

Pros:
* Perfect food
* Contains antibodies that will (hopefully) keep Tommy healthier
* Is easy at home, just whip it out and feed
* Easy in the middle of the night when Tommy's hungry
* Is comforting for Tommy, especially in the middle of the night
* Free

Cons:
* Pumping in the morning means I have to get up 30 minutes early
* Pumping at work means giving up my planning period and not feeling fully prepared
* Not eating dairy is HARD
* Others can't feed him without me needing to pump
* Not convenient when we're out of the house, either have to find a place to nurse or make sure to be home in time.
* No sex drive, may be related to BFing

Hmmmmmmmm 6 points for each side. I don't know what to do. There are some moments where I'm so not ready to stop. Then there are others where I don't know if I can continue, I'm so done with it. Crap. I was hoping for a clear-cut winner...

Another Cold

Poor Tommy, I feel like he's been sick all winter. Last Monday he woke up with a small rash on his forehead that I thought was just because he woke up in a puddle of drool. I took him to daycare and by the time we arrived, it had spread all over his body. I packed him back up and took him to the doctor. They told me it was viral and we would just have to let it run its course.

On Thursday, he had some yellow tinted goop in his eyes but when I took him to the doctor for it back in September, they told me it was just a clogged tear duct so I cleaned his eyes and away we went.

Friday daycare called me and said that the goop in Tommy's eyes was really flowing and had turned green so someone needed to pick him up. Luckily for me, my mom had cataract surgery on Wednesday and was home all week. She was doing really well from the surgery and was able to pick Tommy up and take him to the doctor. It turns out that the eye goop was an infection so they prescribed eye drops to be given 3 times a day for 5-7 days. These eye drops were no joke. Without insurance they would have been $130! We're lucky to have really great insurance so they only cost us $23 out of pocket. They cleared him up quickly though! We haven't seen any goop since Saturday morning.

The doctor said that what probably happened was Tommy most likely rubbed his nose then rubbed his eyes and the infection came from that. All I know is that Tommy is only 5 months old and has been sick A LOT. I'm sure it has a lot to do with daycare. They really do their best to keep things clean there but there are bound to be lots of germs with lots of kids running around.

Sunday morning was probably the worst day of the cold, he slept terribly Friday night and woke up completely stuffed. He had tears, drool, and snot coming out of every hole in his face. He just whined all morning long. I felt terrible for him. He cat napped on and off until finally at 2:30 I laid him down in bed next to me and nursed him to sleep where he stayed for 3 solid hours. He woke up feeling much better.

Yesterday the cold moved down into his chest some so now he has a cough. I'm just praying that it doesn't get too bad. I don't want to have to use the nebulizer on him again. Poor guy!

Making Baby Food

So I mentioned before that I am making Tommy's baby food. We had a few gift cards left for Babies R Us and I decided to buy the Baby Brezza baby food maker. I knew that, although it is a one use appliance, I wouldn't make baby food if it was too much of a process.

So here is my experience with the Baby Brezza. Yesterday I decided to make some more sweet potatoes. I bought one large potato for $1.22.

I pealed and chopped it up in to smallish sized pieces, the manual recommends 1/4-1/2 inch thick:Then I filled up the blender (I didn't take a picture of this but I also put the water into the reservoir as instructed by the manual):

The next step is to put on the top and press the "steam and blend" button until the light under 25 is lit since it takes 25 minutes to steam a sweet potato (also in the manual):
Then you just let it go! I was doing this while the SU basketball game was going on. I missed a few minutes in the beginning of the game to peal, chop, and load the basket of the blender but then I got 25 minutes to just let the machine do it's job. After it was done I found this:
I poured it into an ice cube tray to freeze and got 11 cubes worth:
When I feed Tommy, I thaw 2 cubes and mix with 1oz of breastmilk and he gobbles it all up!

Now for a bit of a downside. The blender really doesn't hold all that much. I did buy a pretty large sweet potato but I had to do two batches to steam and blend the whole thing. One whole (large) sweet potato got me 21 ice cubes worth of food.
That's really the only drawback I can think of and I'm pretty sure it has to do with making sure the whole batch is steamed thoroughly. It's really so little work that I don't mind doing a couple of batches. The convenience of being able to steam and blend in the same appliance really out-weighs the negative here.

For $1.22 I got 10.5 servings of sweet potatoes making the cost about $0.12 per serving. A jar of Gerber sweet potatoes at my grocery store costs $0.53 which gives me a savings of $0.41. However, if I was not making my own baby food I would have bought Earth's Best brand which is $0.85 per jar giving me a savings of $0.73 per serving! Beyond the financial savings, I really feel like Tommy is getting good, nutritious food and I know exactly what is in it.

The parts of the Baby Brezza are nice and easy to clean, the machine is easily wiped clean and almost all of the parts can go in the dishwasher.

Overall, I'm very happy with it so far. I've made sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, pears, and apples. All have been very easy but the peas didn't come out as smooth as I would have liked even though I manually blended them for longer. I'll have to look into how to make them smoother. Any questions about the Baby Brezza or suggestions? Let me know!

Tommy's 5 Month's Old!

I can't believe it. 5 months!
He's weighing in around 15.5 lbs and wearing size 3 diapers and 6 months clothes. He's drinking 8oz bottles at daycare (oink oink!) so I'm still pumping but we have to supplement every day now. I'm just glad that he's still getting breastmilk. He has also started with veggies. He has tried sweet potatoes, pears, and carrots and loves them all. He has discovered his feet and tongue and sticks his tongue out all the time. He also seems to have really discovered his voice. He talks and sings all day.

His sleep was terrible for a little while but seems to have improved lately. He is back to waking up about once per night but last night he slept from 7:30-6:00 straight through (please don't let me jinx this!!!).

He's so much fun lately! I love you Tommy!

Solids Success!

I'm so happy that Tommy has responded well to the sweet potatoes. He gobbles them up! After we finished the first jar of sweet potatoes I gave him some homemade ones thinned with breastmilk and he really loved them! He has been getting 1 ice cube sized serving mixed with half an ounce of breastmilk every morning at daycare. Today I am packing 2 cubes with 1 ounce of breastmilk to see how that goes over. I have also given him pears twice now in the evening. The first time he really liked them. The second time he gave me a face like, "um, this is not a sweet potato, what are you feeding me?" but then gobbled the rest up!

This weekend I'm going to give him carrots and see how those go over.

I cannot tell you how relieved I am that he is able to eat some solids. I was really worried when he didn't tolerate rice cereal. Now I'm going to give him another week of just veggies and fruit and then try to mix in a tiny bit of cereal and see if his tummy can handle it. If not, then I'm going to give him some spinach for the iron content.

Big sigh of relief over here!

Sweet Potato Update Part 2

We gave Tommy sweet potatoes again yesterday. They did back him up a bit since he never had a bowel movement yesterday but it didn't really seem to bother him. He had a major poop today but again, it didn't seem to bother him. More sweet potatoes today! This time we gave him half small jar (we used jarred organic for the first test). We'll see how it goes!