"she looks small again"

its been a long time. i had a successful trip to kansas and everyone survived back here without me too. as a final send off, madelyn decided that she wanted to spend some quality time with me at 2am the night before i left. after about a half hour and a little milk she went back to sleep, but i was exhausted going in to a very long day of work and travel. and i didn't really get much in the way of sleep while i was gone either because of long days at the office.

then i came home to an extra special treat - madelyn started running a fever of 104 after her nap on friday. she is always a little clingy when i first get back from a trip, but she was unwilling to let me step away from her for even a second so i knew that something was a little off. i got her started on motrin every 8 hours and it brought her fever right down. she also had some congestion but nothing too serious. it got much worse overnight and we had a very long and sleepless weekend. i finally decided to call the doctor's office this morning and get her checked out because the fever was still pretty high. turns out that she has a double ear infection! the good news is that she is not in any way contagious and she does not have actual pain in her ears - it looks like we caught it early. she is already doing much better and actually ran around tonight.

even though madelyn was pretty miserable we went to ikea on saturday. we had rented a minivan for the trip or we might have considered going another time. she did great when we stopped to have bagels and slept a little over an hour on the drive there so we were pretty optimistic about the day. however, she went downhill pretty quickly. the worse part was that she had to have me carry her the whole time - about 3-4 hours. she was very heavy (31.6lbs. a the doctor's today) and a strain on my body. she was heavy, hot from the fever, and wouldn't let me sit down with her - i had to stand and rock. when we were in the children's section of the store she had her head resting on my shoulder and kept repeating "play" as she was watching other kids play with all the toys. she wanted to play herself but just didn't have the energy to do so when she was feeling so bad. about the last half hour we were there i remembered that i had a lollipop in my purse and with that we were able to get her to sit in a cart while we finished up and paid. we couldn't get all the furniture in a single trip so maddie and i went to sit in the car while matt got the rest of our items. all in all we were at ikea for 6 hours! and that was with a list and moving through the store pretty quickly.

on sunday matt worked on putting together the furniture for the playroom so that we could empty some more toys out of madelyn's room in preparation for her new furniture to be built and moved in. madelyn was having a lot of fun helping daddy with the screws and giving him the tools he needed. she has about 1-2 hours of happy time after she gets a dose of motrin so we try to make the most of it.

she went down for a nap before we were finished putting everything together so she got to be excited when she woke up to see what was in all the storage bins. it was so nice to see her smile. they have been in very limited supply since i got home.

she was starting to melt down and i took her into her room for a diaper change. as soon as she went in the crying stopped and she let out an "oh wow!" upon noticing that her toddler bed was missing. she just kept looking at the empty space saying "oh wow" again and again. matt got her new twin bed built and into her room in time for bedtime. when we went in to check on her later that night matt commented that "she looks small again" laying curled up in the twin bed. i checked on her a few times because we have the bed so that the sides are not against any walls and in a different orientation than her toddler bed was in the room. i was a little worried that she might roll out and already not feeling well be difficult to get back to sleep. she stayed in bed all night but still woke up three times. she has been waking up for milk because she isn't really eating during the day and gets hungry in the middle of the night. she will only eat after her motrin dose. tonight she ate the most she has eaten since thrusday so i am optimistic that she might let me sleep tonight...

she really likes the new bed and getting under the "covers". today she kept getting into bed to read books or just going in to hide under the covers.

here are some more items of note to catch me up on posts:
- she got a wooden train track at ikea and it has become a quick favorite. she woke up after falling asleep in the car and asked for her "choo-choo" so that she could nap in her bed.

- she almost always has a noun/verb combo instead of single words. this was one of the most striking changes she made while i was gone. she says most things as complete sentences.

- she can solve her shape sorter so quickly now! matt and i were so surprised to see her solve it before i left. i will get some video when she is feeling better again.

- she has been so sick that she can't even open her eyes all the way. even when she is happy and playing her eyes don't open more than halfway.

sorry for the limited pictures. she has been indecent most of the time and i couldn't get pictures at ikea because i was carrying her the whole time. love.

the mystery continues

so madelyn started vomiting at midnight last night again. the good news is that there was only one vomiting incident. and my wonderful husband went out to walgreens at 1am to buy her some gas drops because her stomach was making the sort of exaggerated noises that they use in movies to imply severe stomach trouble is about to come. plus she was crying out every 10 - 30 minutes in pain.

thankfully, after a dose of gas drops and a dose of motrin the night didn't have any more interruptions. and today went really well too. although, there were some rumblings as we were reading books tonight before bedtime so i gave her a dose of the gas drops.

i put a call in to the doctor's office this morning and they said that it was just one of those mystery things that kids pick up and for me just to make sure that she stays hydrated. matt and i are starting to think that it might be some sort of food intolerance - even though there is no obvious possibility and no real changes to her diet. i had thought that it might have been something she ate after the mess last thursday night and have been joking that she must have licked her shoe or something. if she is still having trouble sleeping by thursday night we are supposed to bring her in on friday. so we will see what happens.

while watching me make her lunch today madelyn was "smelling" her strawberry jelly like crazy so i got the camera because i don't think that i have mentioned this interest. she smells everything which has been fun to explore while buying produce at the grocery store or doing anything with clear scents. she doesn't actually "smell" in the video until the end. love.

sanitary cycle

in the past 24 hours i have gotten to use the sanitary cycle on my new, fancy washer about 5 times. and not just for the joy of doing laundry, but because madelyn decided to spend the night emptying out her stomach. i finally got into bed around 12:15am (i was working) and madelyn woke up and made a mess of her bed around 12:30am. and then again at 1:15am. and then again at 2:45am. and then again at 7:30am in the living room. and last a huge mess at 8:30am that put us both into the shower. thankfully, she never had a fever and seems to be done.

she managed to time it out that i would just be drifting off to sleep after changing and starting the laundry from her last mess when she would wake up with another mess again. i finally gave up and put her in bed with me in the guest room so that at least matt would get some sleep and i could make sure that she stayed under the covers since i had also given up on keeping her in pjs after the second strip down. bear couldn't be cleaned well until morning because she would not be able to sleep without him and his odor kept me awake for much of the remaining night (he took a spin the sanitary cycle first thing this morning though). it didn't help that maddie woke up at 7am ready to go. i guess it was lucky that she never actually felt bad. the only thing i can guess is that she got into something that made her stomach really upset. who knows. i was really thankful for our three ultimate crib sheets because they made clean up a 'snap' - literally! (i highly recommend the ultimate crib sheet.)

she was really in a great mood all day. although last night she wasn't really happy about being forced to take a bath when she just wanted to be sleeping. after a three hour nap madelyn was able to eat a waffle and some banana and drink a lot of water. tonight she was her normal self (she is playing with some crazy squash dad brought home from work in the picture.) yea!

in other happy news, madelyn has a new cousin. bradford james ii (junior) was born early this morning. they are going to call him ford since his dad (and namesake) already goes by brad. love.

hand-foot-mouth

my poor madelyn. she hasn't slept more than three hours at a time in two days. that is the first time in her entire life that she has had nights with less than four hours at a stretch - ever. last night was worse than the night before because it took over an hour to get her calm enough to go back to sleep. matt held her for a while and then i took over and held her until she stopped screaming/whimpering.

for those of you who missed my update on yesterday's post, madelyn has hand-foot-mouth disease. it is sort of like the chicken pox - highly contagious, uncomfortable, and once you get it you probably won't get it again. i noticed the beginnings of a rash on the tops of her feet and toes yesterday morning and that is why i called the doctor's office. today it has covered most of her legs - you can sort of see it on the backside of her calf in this picture.

luckily, in this case the rash is not itchy, but it does occur inside her mouth which has removed her desire to eat. all she has had in the past three days is cherrios, teething biscuits and water. i can get her to take a bite here and there of yogurt, applesauce, and today, sugar-free jello but she is nowhere close to getting a normal meal.

to make things worse, she has been refusing her medicine today so she is really getting no relief. at least i have gotten her to nap twice. i think that she is just starting to hit the wall after so little nourishment and sleep. i hate seeing her so pitiful. you can just see how tired she is by looking at her little face and its red rimmed eyes.

overall i think that she is doing a little better today. she even went outside to play with her sticks for a while. you can see from the picture that she is drooling like a faucet. her shirt was sticking to her body down to her bellybutton with all the drool pouring out! at least i know that she isn't dehydrated.

even with her illness madelyn has come up with some new 'tricks'. today i was holding her in my lap and reading to her. when we finished that book she got down off my lap, went to the bookshelf and picked the book she wanted, then brought it back to me. she even tried to get back up in my lap herself with the book! i have been waiting for her to do this since kids often do and she loves her books so much.

another new 'trick' is that you can ask her "where's your shirt?" and she will pull on her shirt; either near the neck or lifting up the bottom. she can also pat her belly when you ask her "where's your belly?". she can't find her own bellybutton though, but will point at where "bear"s

would be if he had one.

lastly, i haven't had a chance to mention a new word from last week - "down". she definitely hears that one a lot so it is not surprising that she says it too. love.

more firsts (and hopefully one last)

another rough day of teething here today. poor maddie just wants to be held while she sucks/chews on her thumb and alternately cries (the picture below is from yesterday's snuggling). the benefit for me is that she is more snugly than normal, but the con is that she has to be held and it makes it difficult for me to work, cook dinner, or, well, anything. luckily she holds still so i can sit at the computer and type away with her on my lap.

while she was feeling well today she did one of her favorite things - 'read' books in her room. then she decided that she missed her shoes while i left the room for a minute and got up close and personal in her sock/shoe drawer.

to distract her from the teething pain i was going through some friends' blogs and playing videos telling her about the babies. she was watching my mouth really closely when i would say "baby" and then copy me quietly. so she said "baby" today for the first time! another word to her vocabulary. although she says it with a soft "a" instead of the correct, hard "a". (is that the correct term? i can't remember for the life of me right now and i don't care enough to do a quick search.)

there was another word first with daddy tonight during bath time. we always drain the water from the tub with maddie still in it and tell her to say "bye-bye" to the water when we open the drain. matt said that when he did it tonight maddie gave a little wave and whispered "bye-bye". he was all excited because this was a first just for him.

maddie has also started to do fake laughing for her own amusement or to get our attention in the car. she was doing it today while looking out the window into the backyard so i got the camera. when it starts she is licking the window and trying to bite it (there is a little 'fur' for the track that she is fascinated with right now).



saturday after playgroup we stopped by jcp to pick up our pictures from the not so great photo session. and i scanned them today so that you all could take a look.













and that led to the first that i hope never happens again (but somehow i know that it will) - maddie puked in public. she had been doing great for two days and i just didn't see it coming. i am pretty sure that we just over did it at playgroup with the 'treats' after so many days of just liquids and it upset her stomach, but still! we had just gotten her in the high chair at the restaurant for lunch with dad and it just kept coming and coming. i didn't even realize how bad it was until the lady at a table next to us offered her napkins. i pulled the high chair away from the table and saw the full extent of the damage. i didn't know what to do. i couldn't take her with me and matt was up ordering our food. so i was just yelling "matthew" over and over in the calmest, loud voice i could muster. he finally turned around when i used his full name. the restaurant employees could not have been nicer about the clean up. one busboy was so sweet that he offered us a clean high chair. i politely declined stating that we would be leaving now (matt got our food to go). so we left with lunch and a striped down to the diaper maddie. we did get a few looks on the way out... love.

fluid filled day

there are no pictures today. and you should be grateful because i did think about it this morning. but let's start at the beginning.

this morning i had to go do some blood work and nicotine testing for the insurance at matt's new job so i was excited that maddie was sleeping in so that i could get ready. she finally started to wake up a little after 8am and i was thinking about how great the blackout curtains were working out.

the second i opened her door to say good morning i knew that this was going to be a long day. there was my beautiful daughter standing up in her vomit filled crib with a huge smile on her face and greeting me with a "hi"! this was the first time maddie has ever vomited so i was a little worried. but since she was so happy i figured it must have been something we fed her for dinner. after giving her a bath and stripping down the crib, she nursed fine and acted like her normal self so off we went to my appointment.

madelyn did fine and hung out with daddy while i was getting my blood drawn. i was going to run by the grocery store for a few things on the way home, but since she and i hadn't had our breakfast yet i thought that we should go ahead and stop by the house first to eat.

she wasn't all that interested in eating so i went to get my cereal while i waited for her to work up her interest. instead she started on a dirty diaper - nothing too unusual. that is until i noticed something on her shoe... it was poo. yes, poo had gotten out of her diaper, down her pant leg and on to the front of her shoe while she was sitting in her high chair. so off we went for bath number two!

pretty much madelyn was acting totally normal with the exception of not having an appetite and drinking more fluids than normal. the diarrhea had slowed down and i had only had to change her clothes two more times. she took a 4 hour afternoon nap and seemed to be doing better. she ate a little banana for dinner and drank almost 10 ounces of milk for dinner. i gave her a bath, got her dressed for bed, read her a few books, and began to nurse her before going down for the night. she stopped nursing and started snuggling with her sleep sack and sucking her thumb (perfectly normal behavior).

and then she sat up and spit up a little - okay - and then came my banana milk vomit shower! back to the tub for maddie to strip her down again. once i had her back into some clean pjs and in her crib to sleep, then i took a shower and sat down to reflect on my day.

i think that i am going to call the doctor's office tomorrow morning. she must have some sort of stomach bug. at least she doesn't seem bothered by any of it and is being her normal, happy self. but it was a really long day for mom... love.

picking up the crumbs

yes, my sweet angel girl has an ear infection. we picked up her antibiotics this morning and after a very long afternoon nap she seems like a new girl. luckily, it is only in her right ear so hopefully she can get over this quickly.

the title of this post is in reference to maddie's newest eating habit - picking up the "crumbs". if something falls/drips off the spoon she can't concentrate on anything but trying to pick it up and put it into her mouth. if it is a pureed food she will wipe it with her hand and suck it off her fingers. she just started doing this in the last week and its really cute how determined she is to get it into her mouth. eventually i have to just wipe off her tray so that she will keep eating.

so no pictures today. love.

its been a long day...

so the baby who rarely cries spent the bulk of the day crying and screaming inconsolably. she slept all night (8am-6pm) and was fine until just after breakfast. she started to get fussy and when i picked her up she started sucking her thumb - a classic "i'm sleepy" sign for maddie. so i put her down and she slept for around an hour and a half. then the real fun began. she screamed/cried for about 6 hours with a few brakes to suck her thumb and take half hour naps. she just wanted me to hold her and stand. she still doesn't have a fever and her congestion is almost gone so i thought that her molars were cutting.

after about 4 hours i called the doctor's office to see what they thought and they think that it might be her ears! why didn't i think of that?! they said that he symptoms didn't sound serious enough to risk driving (it snowed all day and the roads were really icy and a mess in general) so we are going in tomorrow morning.

the good news is that i gave her another dose of tylenol at 6pm and that seems to have relieved whatever pain she was experiencing because she is all over the place and laughing again. it figures that she would be all smiles for when daddy gets home... i am just hoping that this means she will sleep tonight. i will update you all on her condition in the morning. love.

(the pictures are from her photo shoot with her cousin annabell last week.)

hi, doggie!

madelyn is extremely interested in our dogs now. she crawls over to the glass sliding doors to look for them out on the deck. and when they come up she laughs at and talks to them. i think "dog" or "doggie" might be her next word. she has come pretty close to saying it while looking at her books with dogs in them. she is just missing this vowels by saying "dg". you can see her trying to give maggie a 'kiss' in the picture while lady waits her turn.

matt went out last night to brave the cold because we were worried that maddie wouldn't be able to breathe with her congestion. so matt came home with a bag of supplies from walgreens and we woke her up. after plugging in a vapor fan in her room, putting saline drops in her nose and sucking them out again, and rubbing baby vicks on her chest we were all breathing easier.

and we all had a great night's sleep! due to concerns about frostbite (it was colder than -30) and maddie's sniffles we stayed home from church this morning. i hate missing church but it really was in madelyn's best interest. she slept until 8:30am!

here is a video of a well rested girl showing how fast she is getting at crawling.



did i mention before that she gives "kisses" now? she mainly gives them to matt (not that i am jealous or anything). they are the big, wet, open mouthed, "i'm going to eat your face" variety, but she gives them on request. very sweet. well, that's all for now. love.