Bad to worse

So EM basically came home and went straight to bed. Thankfully, Nanny (almost fully recovered from her own illness) was able to come and help out. I can't wait for this... whatever it is... to be done with.

-ED

UPDATE: It's now Saturday night, the 29th, and we are all - finally - feeling better. Not 100%, but good enough.

I'm sure you all saw this coming...

...now EM and I are sick. That's right, just as the little one is starting to feel better we are now feeling worse. This coincides nicely (not) with Ellie's newest phase: asking for our hand and taking (dragging) us where she wants to go. Yes, that's exactly what I want to do when I feel like poop... go on one hundred meaningless treks... sniff... around the house at the insistence of... sniff... my little girl or... sniff... face a temper tantrum if I fail to comply.

-ED

Ellie-assisted Wolfpack 2, Lowly Tarheels 0

My much loved NC State Wolfpack football team vanquished the over-hyped Tarheels, 41-10, and in the process claimed the mythical State Championship by going undefeated against in-state competition (ECU, Duke, Wake and UNC). And, just like last year, Ellie was there to help me cheer. She managed to do this even though she still isn't feeling well.

The picture that follows was taken when she was feeling much better and it was much nicer out, but I've been hanging on to it for just this purpose.

We're the red and white from State,
and we know we are the best.
Hands behind our back,
we can take on all the rest.
GO TO HELL Carolina!
Devils and Deacs stand in line.
The red and white from NC State.
Go State!

-ED

Snow

If we got snow last season, and I don't think we did, Ellie didn't notice. Today, we got our first snow of the season even if it was just a trace. Ellie, of course, is now old enough to notice such things. However, given her current condition, she wasn't that impressed (or maybe she just wasn't impressed by a dusting of snow). It's just as well that she didn't notice (or care) since we don't have snow gear for the little one.

-ED

PS - It's not too common around here that we would go from fall frolicking (posted 11/17) to snow (posted 11/21) in the span of four days. So, just to be clear, this further confirms the slack nature of my posting for the first half of November.

It was bound to happen

Ellie is sick. For the first time in 17+ months, I can truly say this. Sure, she had a mild reaction to an immunization and she had a severe diaper rash brought on by a protracted case of diarrhea. However, other than those two relatively minor episodes, she has been a remarkably healthy baby up until now.

So what ails our little one? Well, we got our first suspicions that all was not well with Ellie last night as she slept. She was snoring loudly which is unlike her and she coughed once or twice in a very congested manner. Then, today, everything became clear as I heard more coughing paired with some labored breathing, felt a slight fever, wiped her nose countless times and accommodated, as best I could, her high degree of clingy-ness.

I'm really proud and impressed that she's gone this long without getting sick. I attribute this mostly to EM's efforts as well as the isolated nature of daddy daycare. But now that the streak has ended, all we can do is hope and pray for the best. It really does suck though to see your little one not doing so well and know that there's not much that can be done, beyond offering as much comfort as possible to the little angel with the limited vocabulary (I mean, really, it would be nice if she could tell us exactly what is bothering her and how we could help), since these things just have to run their course.

Hang in there baby girl. We love you!

-ED

Fall

We live at the end of a heavily wooded street. As I like to say, we bought our current home because EM liked the house and I liked the lot. However, it is around this time of the year that I become not so fond of our lot due to all the leaves that I must tend to.

In any event, we (really, mostly me) have had some good opportunities here recently to gather leaves and this has allowed us to introduce Ellie to some of fall's simple pleasures - listening to the leaves crunch under your feet, jumping into piles of leaves, and delighting in the palette of colors mother nature provides this time of year, just to name a few.

-ED

I'm back!

OK. So I never actually left. But I do find it a bit hard to believe that this is my first post in two weeks. There's been a couple of times I came close to making posts over that time, but then life got in the way. I'm sure you all know how that goes. In any event, I plan to do a better job of posting now (at least for the next few weeks... a topic for yet another post).

With that said, Ellie and I made our first trek to the local children's museum. This is definitely a place to enjoy with kids of all ages, and I'm sure we will return. Ellie participated in, among other things, shopping, arts/crafts, dressing up and story time.

A few notes of caution: there was a school group there and I overheard a staff member say that Fridays are the most common days for such outings; there are only a couple of vending machines on site, so plan (and pack) accordingly if you think you might be there longer than say two hours; and, the admission isn't cheap, at $7 per person over the age of one, for a couple of hours of entertainment (we had a buy one get one free coupon, so it wasn't a big deal). Then again, when you stack it up against a movie, for example, it's probably a relative bargain and it's more mind-expanding, too. Anyhow, it was a good way to kill time on an otherwise dreary day.

-ED

727 days . . .

. . . Ellie and I have been attached in one way or another. She was in utero 253 days. Then it became an attachment to feed my baby, to help her grow and thrive, 16 months and 17 days to be exact. At first it was hard. Probably the hardest thing I have ever done. I was sore for months. It was not comfortable for her to latch on until maybe when she was about 3-4 months old. But we made it through. After awhile it did become enjoyable to have that time to hold, feed, and comfort my baby.

I fed Ellie every other hour at first. Slowly it turned into every 3-4 hours. By eight weeks she was sleeping 6-8 hour stretches at night. I returned to work when Ellie was 11 weeks old. I fed her in the a.m., pumped twice at work, and fed her 2-3 times after work. As she was turning 7-8 months she started dropping feedings. By one year I was just feeding her in the morning before work and then in the evening before bed. Over the summer she dropped the morning feeding and started to sleep later. And now in the past few days she dropped the last feeding, the best feeding of them all, the one right before bed.

The amazing thing is that none of this weaning has been difficult. Ellie and I just knew when it was time. Over the past few weeks she has been very insistent that she needed milk from mommy. After bath time we would move to our bedroom, play, and watch tv. If I sat in the milk chair she would have a fit. "Milk, milk, milk." Her last feeding was Tuesday night. She asked for milk. She couldn't focus though. She wanted to talk to Daddy. Since then I haven't sat in the milk chair and she hasn't asked for it. So as far as I can say now, breastfeeding is over.

I am so happy that we made it this far, but I am sad to see it go. I will miss having that time with Ellie to hold her, to cuddle with her with her focus on me. I will miss her falling asleep while feeding... so content. We will just have to find other ways and times to cuddle and love each other.

I love you Ellie Rose. You are growing up so fast. This sure is a sign that you are not a baby anymore.

Love, Mama

Ohhhhhh Ohhhhhh

Ellie and ED frequently read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. When they get to the part where the caterpillar has a stomachache from eating a large amount of food, Ellie and ED moan and groan together. Well Ellie might not be moaning for real, but she has had stomach troubles since Friday. Needless to say any parent who has to change 5-7 dirty diapers every day for six days will tell you they are ready for a well baby. You wouldn't know anything was wrong by Ellie's demeanor. She has been in good spirits. Over the weekend she had a horrible diaper rash, but even that only made her fuss during diaper changes. Thanks to treatment with lotrimin the diaper rash is gone. Now if we could only figure out what is causing the poops we'd be set.


-EM