And this series of updates wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the diaper-insert-sewing situation I was venting about on Facebook!

Part of the gifts I’m making for my mom and Sabrina’s baby showers is fleece-topped diaper inserts (very similar to Flip inserts). Unfortunately, I procrastinated and procrastinated and didn’t get to them until this week! Talk about bad timing, with sickness and packing and everything.

Then when I actually started sewing them, they weren’t looking as good as I wanted them to. Have you ever tried sewing microfiber?! It is not fun! Even with pins, it was so hard to keep it where I wanted it without bunching up.

So they don’t look professional or anything, but I put many hours into them and they’re fully functional so that’s going to have to be enough (and I’m pretty sure I can blame this sewing experience for any future needs for prototype 37c). Hopefully the cute covers I bought will distract them from the uneven stitching on the inserts!

Posted: May 28th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

Even though we are taking the car instead of the van, I still decided to bring our cloth diapers. I packed them into a smaller bag and am only bringing Flips because they take up so much less room. Plus, they fit Kelvin the best out of all his diapers (as long as he doesn’t get an extra surge of human growth hormone LOL). And they are already packed into the car, so I know they fit, and we are really doing this! Eeeek!

My biggest concern was having them smell on the way home and that will be even less of an issue with the car since the trunk is separate from the rest of the car. With the van, the smell would have been free to roam through the whole vehicle! LOL

Posted: May 28th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

I almost forgot to update everyone on Kelvin’s sickness situation. Luckily, he is all better now, but we have no idea what it was.

He tested negative for rotovirus or any parasites. And his doctor had a radiologist look at his chest xray for a second opinion and he said it was inconclusive. I guess because he’s so small and they couldn’t get him to take a deep breath for it, it was really hard to see. So I have no idea why the ER dr’s would try to get me to believe he had a lung infection then! Even knowing that, I did have him finish his antibiotic, though, because his blood draw showed infection, so I figured he had an infection somewhere, even if it wasn’t in his chest.

This week, Ava got sick, which was so not what I needed, with getting ready for the trip and all. She only had diarrhea, though…..no fever or other symptoms. Luckily, she seems to be over it now. That would not have been fun to travel with!!

And now that she’s better, Kelvin is getting his eye teeth in. I took him to the dr yesterday to check for an ear infection because he was acting so unbelievably grumpy, but he doesn’t have one so I guess it’s just the teething.

Man, with all the times we’ve been at the doctor in the last two weeks, it’s a good thing they have insurance! Otherwise, we’d be paying closer attention to insurance advertising!

Posted: May 28th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

I think we are crazy. No, wait….I’m pretty certain we are crazy! As if it isn’t hard enough packing up two kids with all their stuff into the van….now we’ve decided to pack it all into my car!

The air conditioning in Chad’s van got broken in our accident last February, and it’s getting hot, so we were really not looking forward to driving in the heat. So we decided to attempt to get all the stuff in my car. I spent a lot of time last night repacking everything to get it as compact as possible. And I spent 45 minutes this morning cramming it all into the trunk of the car….I had to rearrange everything about 20 times. But it is finally in there! And we will have a little more space going home because we won’t have all the baby shower gifts and my newborn cloth diaper stash (which I’m lending to my mom) in there.

Unfortunately, we won’t have enough room to bring home the outdoor furniture my grandparents bought for the kids (a little picnic table and umbrella). I’m so disappointed, but they said they’ll plan a trip down to see us soon and bring it then.

Posted: May 28th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

This morning, Kelvin had his follow-up appointment after his ER visit yesterday. I also brought Ava in because she started coughing this morning and I was afraid she had caught Kelvin’s bug.

Ava looks OK for right now. The doctor said she has a sore throat, but that’s all. He said I should keep an eye on her and bring her back in if she gets worse, though.

Kelvin’s visit was a different story. The doctor has doubts about whether he has pneumonitis since he never had a cough. He sent his chest xrays to a different radiologist for a second opinion. I have my doubts too, but the fact remains that his blood work showed evidence of an infection….so if it’s not in his lungs, where is it?

The doctor also wants to test him for rotovirus. He said the pneumonitis should not be causing diarrhea (which is what I was thinking all along), so there must be something else going on in addition to the infection. It should be fun collecting a stool sample from him. He hasn’t eaten more than a few bites at a time of solid food in the last few days, so all of his diarrhea soaks right into his diaper. I’m really not sure how I’m going to collect this….at this point, finding a good deal on car insurance seems easier!

Any ideas? The only one I have is putting him in just a PUL diaper cover for a little bit until he goes (which is about every 30 minutes, so he shouldn’t have to be in it for long) and then dumping it off the cover into the specimen container. That way it has nothing to soak into, but the cover is waterproof, so it won’t leak everywhere. I’m totally open to better ideas, though….mine kinda grosses me out! LOL

Posted: May 18th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 1

I think all mama’s of more than one child wish they could spend more one-on-one time with each of their children…especially the younger ones that never got the one-on-one years that the oldest did. Well, I got lots of time with just Kelvin today, but I wish it had been under better circumstances!

Kelvin had been running a fairly high fever since Friday afternoon. The highest it went was 103, but most of the time it hovered around 101 (and that was when he was on both ibuprofen and acetaminophen). He also had horrendous diarrhea and one episode of puking, but no cold-like symptoms. I had decided over the weekend that if the fever wasn’t gone by Monday I would take him to the doctor to have him looked at.

He woke up with his fever at 102 this morning (Monday) and was extremely lethargic and clingy, so I called the pediatrician’s office and got an appointment for 2:15 pm. Not even 15 minutes later, I noticed that his lips were blue and his hands and feet were purple. They were also freezing-cold, which was weird since the rest of his body was hot from the fever. I immediately called the doctor’s office back and they said to take him to the ER.

Luckily, Chad was able to take off work today so that I didn’t have to bring Ava. Kelvin and I left immediately (with me barely dressed….I had on clothes and deodorant but hadn’t even touched my hair or makeup) and got there at about 9:30 or 10 (I honestly can’t remember). We got taken back pretty quickly and they decided to start an IV with fluids, do some bloodwork and do a chest xray.

The IV/blood draw was horrible. He was so dehydrated from his diarrhea that they couldn’t even find a vein. First the nurse tried and she couldn’t find one. Then the phlebotomist tried and failed and suggested a different nurse that was really good at doing IV’s for kids. He came in and it even took him a really long time. He checked both arms, hands, feet, and even his scalp!! Finally, they settled on one in his arm and they had to dig for it. No wonder he was so lethargic this morning if he was that dehydrated! I’d been pushing fluids, but apparently he’d just been pooping them right out again.

After they did the chest xray, they discovered that he had pneumonitis. Basically, it’s worse than bronchitis, but not as bad as pneumonia. They started him on antibiotics in his IV right away and he fell asleep on my chest for about 3 hours. I was so bored during that time….I had my dying phone, stupid daytime TV and no MP3 players!

All of his blood work came back fine, except for the elevated levels due to the infection in his lungs. They said the diarrhea was just a result of his body being so out of whack with the infection.

So they sent us home with more antibiotics and told us to have a follow-up appointment with his doctor tomorrow. They also said it will take about a week for this bug to go away. I really hope we don’t end up back in the ER again….his lips started turning blue again tonight and had me really worried, but then they turned pink again.

I’m very thankful for all of the people who prayed for him, gave us advice and offered to help us today! My friend Miriam even brought me a Vanilla Diet Coke and Kelvin an apple juice slush from Sonic at the hospital! We really appreciate all of you!

Posted: May 17th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 1

I signed Ava up for swimming lessons yesterday! She starts June 7 and I’m not sure who is more excited…her or me! My baby is growing up so fast…I can barely believe she’s old enough to take swimming lessons, but I know she’s going to love them.

They’re actually starting her in Preschool Level 2. Level 1 was full and I said we could wait until the July session to start her and the lady was like, “Oh, Level 1 and Level 2 are pretty much the same.” I hope she was right! I’m a little nervous about that….

I’m excited that the kids are both old enough to enjoy the pool this year. I have a feeling we’ll end up buying a family pass and spending lots of time there this summer. Hey, maybe all that swimming will help me with losing abdominal fat! LOL

Posted: May 14th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

Well, when I wrote my last post, we had 2 baby birds left. This morning, we had only one. I don’t see any baby birds under the tree, so I’m not really sure what to think. I know that their hatching times were really far apart…the last one hatched about a week after the first one. So maybe the missing one has already started flying. That’s what I’m hoping anyway. (And also? best treatment for herpes Not really sure how to work that one in. I don’t typically write about stuff like that LOL)

Tonight, when I checked I couldn’t see any babies in there, but it might have just been because the remaining one was sleeping and the stupid branch was in the way (that’s happened before). I hope they’ll still come back and “visit” the tree after they learn to fly so that Ava can see them. She’s going to be sad when they all learn to fly.

I got a video of the mama feeding the remaining baby this morning. It’s still a little hard to see because of the dumb branch, but you can see it in this one. I’ll upload it with my next post, but right now I’m way too lazy (did I mention the kids didn’t nap today and this is my first break all day long?).

Posted: May 13th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

Well, the baby bird that fell out of the tree didn’t survive after all. Chad and I found it on the ground yesterday and it was already dead. Chad thinks it was sick and the mama bird had pushed it out of the nest in the first place, but I prefer to think that it died because of the first fall and then she pushed it out after it was already dead.

Luckily, Ava was not there when we discovered and disposed of it and she hasn’t missed it in the nest. I’m not really sure how I would explain that one, so it’s a good thing it’s not an issue (wow, it’s a good thing I don’t do employment screening….I hate uncomfortable situations!! LOL).

So now we just have the two remaining birdies to watch. I think Ava will really like watching them learn to fly and then seeing them as they come back to the tree.

Posted: May 12th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

We’ve had the interesting opportunity of being able to observe a robin’s nest right outside Ava’s bedroom window this year! We first noticed it as the babies were starting to hatch and we were only able to tell there were babies in it because we would see their little beaks peek out when the mama robin came back with food. They’re a bit bigger now and we can see them even when the mama isn’t there feeding them. This picture was taken when they were littler, so you might not be able to see them, but I’m going to get a better picture this week.

Yesterday, I was talking to Chad while he was working on the porch-we’re-finishing-off-to-be-a-playroom when I noticed something moving in the grass. It was a baby bird!! We probably shouldn’t have done what we did next, but we used a piece of wood to get it on a paper plate (being extremely careful not to touch it) and Chad climbed up on the roof to put it back in its nest. We knew the mama bird was watching us from the garage roof the entire time, so we were a little afraid she’d abandon the babies.

The kids and I spent the next hour or so glued to Ava’s window watching to be sure the babies would be OK. The mama robin kept flying over, looking at the babies and then flying away. I was really nervous, but then she finally started bringing them food again and she was sitting on them all day today (it was raining and really damp….luckily we have a basement dehumidifier), so she must have decided it was OK to still take care of them.

From everything I’ve heard and learned about baby robins, I think they’ll be learning to fly within the next week or two. They already flap their wings around in the nest all the time (which I’m assuming is how the one fell out) and the mama is feeding them whole pieces of food instead of the pre-digested stuff. I hope Ava doesn’t take it too hard when they don’t live in the nest anymore…she’s already really attached to them and calls them “my baby birdies”.

Posted: May 10th, 2010 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 2