So today we went to the dentist as a family this afternoon. It was the boys’ very first time sitting in the chair! We’re all cavity free here (yay hooray!) and they took xrays of Butterfly’s teeth. You can TOTALLY see all her permanent teeth coming in under her baby teeth. That was amazing to see! I wish I had gotten a picture of that. We’re betting her bottom teeth will fall out before her top ones. Anyone got any money to back that up?
Pirate did sort of okay. I had to hold his hand the whole time and the dentist couldn’t count his teeth. But he did agree to be brushed and they counted then. 20 teeth! The dentist got a quick peek before he got totally fed up with the process. He’s got a small chip on his front tooth, but nothing to worry about.
Professor agreed to have his teeth counted and was super excited when he got to hold the mirror. But then the hygenist showed him the tool she was going to use and he shut his mouth and would barely open after. I had to kind of hold his mouth open for the brushing and the checking. He’s our binkie baby and boy is it starting to show on his teeth! He’s still got a ton of space between his teeth so they aren’t really that worried about it now.
Juice headed out to the doctor this morning. He just can’t shake the cold. He coughs so hard he can’t even walk when the coughing fits come. Poor guy. He has bronchitis and is now on antibiotics. We took Flower to the doctor as well but she just has a bad cough. She got some medicine to help her sleep at night since that is when most of the coughing happens.
Tonight at dinner Butterfly asked me a question:
“What does overjoyed mean?”
“What do you think it means honey?”
“I want you to tell me.”
“Well I want to hear what you think it means.”
She smiled just a little smile that flashed her dimple.
This morning we had to take the boys to the blood draw lab. I set up appointments for them online (love that I can do that at 10pm on a Saturday night) around the time I thought we could make it and Juice could still make his 10am meeting this morning. Because there is no way I’m taking all 3 kids to the lab by myself.
It was raining. The kids slept in because it was dark. I ended up having to WAKE them up and throw them in the car to make it on time. Luckily, because they were sleeping, I was able to make up our super healthy “chocolate” shake (with no chocolate in it) for them to drink in the car.
We had the whole waiting room to ourselves when we got there. Pirate needed 2 tests, and Professor needed 6. They told me they may not be able to draw all the blood they need because he’s so tiny. So we decided to start with him. I brought in a few cars for him to play with. He was very happy to drive them over the arm rest bar while the tech prepped for his test. He was great with the arm band restriction. And then she stuck him. He started screaming. The tech had to almost lay on his arm while I held him down so she could get 3 tubes from him. Hopefully that will be enough blood. I heard Pirate in the waiting room saying “Uh oh! Uh oh!” while Professor was screaming. He stop screaming the moment she offered him a sticker. He was very happy to leave the room and go sit in the waiting room with Daddy and sister, cradling his “owchie!”
Pirate also drove his cars across the arm rest and helped the tech poke his arm to find a vein in his arm. She stuck him and all he said was, “ow.” No screaming, no trying to pull away. Just “ow.” He was also pleased with his sticker.
Juice said that Butterfly told the waiting room that she wanted to have her blood drawn too and it was not fair that the boys got their arms poked and she didn’t.
But what was fair was the trip to Krispy Kreme right after. Both boys would not straighten their arms and only wanted to scrape the chocolate glaze off their doughnuts. But I thought it was a great treat after being poked.
Once we got home, I asked them to show their owies to the camera and this is what we got: I don’t think Professor has a very high pain tolerance. Poor guy. But aren’t their pjs so cute?!
Last night I was up way too late and had to deal with the screaming yet AGAIN this morning. Plus Butterfly got up at around 3am to go potty (yay for waking up!) but fell asleep on the toilet. I woke up when she got in there, and wondered what in the world she was doing in there! Go in to find her all slumped over and asleep. At least she made it to the toilet on time. No picture because I had had about an hour and a half of sleep by that point. Tired.
I got too little sleep to handle screaming well.
Juice (who also stayed up playing his weekly online game fix) wasn’t handling it very well either. We started talking about taking Professor to the doctor and I didn’t want to go. But Juice said to just go and get milk at the store next to the doctor’s office. Fine.
Guess what? Nothing is wrong. Yeah. Oh, and I also got yelled at by the doctor for giving him a goldfish before she came in the door. This was after the nurses came in to see why he was screaming and urged me to give him a gold fish. I’m not liking them right now. (But I do love my new insurance…no copay!)
After a negative swab for strep, RSV, and the flu, we headed out to the store for milk. And then I got myself some fast food breakfast because I love that stuff and I never am out in time to get it.
The boys napped well after a big lunch and Butterfly fell asleep too. I attempted to get things picked up around the house and failed miserably. I fell asleep on my bed with Butterfly but only slept for a few minutes when the boys woke up. And Professor screamed until Juice got home.
Luckily, Professor was happy to eat dinner (pasta with goat cheese sauce, all the kids loved it) and is now tucked away into his bed.
I intend to go to my bed as soon as I’m done with this. Maybe that will fix the horrible funk we all seem to be in lately.
He doesn’t see as many as his cousin, cute little girl! But between all the well baby visits and his broken leg, I feel like we see a lot of doctors.
Today’s doctor visit was a visit to the urologist at the children’s hospital. Our regular pediatrician thought he might have a hernia in his testicles so off to the specialist! Today was the day we got to see what was going on.
First off, a fight with the pediatrician’s office and the hospital office. I have a love/hate relationship with paperwork right now. I got it all worked out (after several calls) and into an exam room we go. Butterfly and Professor got to play at a friend’s house this morning. Much more fun than the doctor’s. PLUS, no one under the age of 12 is allowed into the hospital unless they are a patient. Hello flu!
Anyway, a med student was able to exam Pirate first. No hernia. I was happy about that. But he does have something called a hydrocele.
If you don’t want to click the link, a hydrocele is basically fluid from the abdominal cavity that is draining into his testicle area. This is happening because as the testes drop in development, they make a hole in the abdominal wall to get to where they are supposed to be. Most of the time this opening seals up by the age of one and there is no problem. Pirate’s did not. His is very slight. I think his doctor called it a “non-communicating hydrocele” which means that there is not a lot of fluid passing back and forth through this opening.
It’s not painful. It’s not harmful. It may or may not go away at this point. It will only go away for sure with surgery. To do the surgery or not is up to us. The doctor is willing to do it but it probably won’t alter his quality of life if he doesn’t have it. I’m glad it’s not life threatening but being faced with this decision is a little daunting.
Juice and I talked about it a lot. I talked to my parents about it. (Juice’s parents are in the MTC for their mission or he probably would have talked to them about it.) I think talking to my dad made my decision though. He had a double hernia when he was a teenager probably due to a hydrocele left untreated.
Pirate is getting the surgery.
It’s a fast surgery. The doctor said it would only take an hour or so. He would do it in the surgical suites they have at his office. They would not give him any pain medication after the surgery and he would only have 3 or 4 stitches in two areas. My thought is it’s better to fix this now while he is little. Before he ends up with a double hernia. Before he gets teased in the locker room because he looks different (and it does). Before he’s old enough to really get the whole surgery aspect. It’s a good idea.
The doctor will probably schedule it in March or April.
It was a big morning for Pirate and me. We celebrated with doughnuts. Yum!
Today is a day in which I over scheduled myself beautifully. For your perusal:
The day started later than I had hoped, 7:30am. I had hoped to rise by 6am with Juice. Juice did not get up at 6am; therefore, neither did I. Butterfly, however, did get up at 7:30am and so we started our day.
Playgroup for Butterfly this morning was great. We played outside. The boys went down Ms. K’s really big slide by themselves. Shocked looks and a few shy smiles followed. Also, lots of giggling girls and eating mummy hot dogs and home made doughnuts. It was great. I miss weekly playgroup with these girls.
A prompt departure at 12:45pm in order to make it to the boys’ 18 month old doctor visits. No matter that they are almost 19 months old. And no matter that this is the 4th time I’ve had to schedule this visit (first few times we were sick, then I was out of town). Arrival was prompt. Waiting room was full. The boys were charming. The rest of the visit as follows:
In which I was able to strip both boys to their diapers in less than 1 minute. The nurse timed me. He (the nurse) got a kick out of it and kept mentioning it.
In which Pirate weighs 24 lbs 1.5 oz, 33.5 inches long and has a nice 19 inch head. This puts him at 50th for weight, 95th for height!, and 75th for head.
In which Professor weighs 21 lbs, 5.5 oz, 32 3/8 inches long and another nice round 19 inch head. 5th percent for weight (yay we’re back on the charts), 50th for height and 75th for head.
In which both boys had two shots, hib and flu. Pirate did not cry in the slightest. Professor screamed during the second shot but was mollified by his binky and sticker.
In which Butterfly also received a shot in the arm for the flu. She threw a hissy fit. A sucker and a sticker did not placate her. I finally had to yell at her and put her in time out in the doctor’s office. Good times.
In which Pirate is probably going to have surgery!! He has a hernia that has not gone away. Off to Children’s Hospital we go!
In which we spent almost 2 hours at the doctor’s office.
In which I was grateful to have thrown Butterfly’s dance clothes in the car on the way out. We got to dance class in time to have a milk shake (the boys drank most of mine) and go to class.
In which I came home to dinner done in the crock pot. I love my crock pot.
In which I am now pooped and need to sleep. Night!
I’ve been uncharacteristically absent from my blog lately. The trip with my family was so much fun! So much so that I was in bed early every day and sleep won out over blogging.
I have 3 FULL cards of pictures that I’m going to attempt to download today, so expect a lot of pictures soon.
Updates to look forward to as well: the boys 1st birthday! They are one year old! Their year old doctor visit, cousin pictures, Egg Roll pictures, and a museum review.
One little update right now: the boys got their first dose of the MMR vaccine on Monday. All day yesterday they both just laid in my arms moaning and radiating heat. It was awful! Pirate’s fever broke around 4pm and he was pleasant and happy. Professor, on the other hand, was horribly sick. He cried every time I put him down and just sat in my arms not moving. Tylenol didn’t help, and I figured the best thing for him was sleep. Around 2am I woke up to him screaming. When I picked him up I knew he was very sick, burning hot to the touch. Temperature read 103.4 degrees. More Tylenol, some cool water in a sippy cup and a lot of cuddling and nursing and it went down to around 101 in about an hour. I was all ready to call the on call doctor if it didn’t go down because he was so miserable.
He finally went to sleep around 5am, and Pirate woke up around 6am for the day. I was BEAT. Juice was kind enough to work from home for an hour or so this morning so I sleep some. This morning he is feeling better, although his fever comes and goes. Ugh, I hate this shot. I remember it being hard on Butterfly too.
Early early this morning, we had our final visit with Doc B. We actually made it on time, despite rush hour traffic. As we were lead into the exam room, we kind of brought the whole office with us in a wake. They were so happy to see us. I was happy to be there because it officially ended the cast.
We put the boys down on the floor to play and immediately Pirate got himself up onto all fours and started rocking. “Awww….” says the whole office. They were all crowded around the door when Doc B came up.
“Hey, I can’t afford to have you all standing around here!” He smiled. The whole office laughed and dispersed. He came up, took one look at Pirate up on his hands and knees and said, “Well, he’s healed.” I picked Pirate up and Doc B felt his leg for about .5 seconds and said, “Let’s get an x-ray!”
At that point, about 3 x-ray techs come into the room (because the door was open and it seemed like they were waiting their turn outside). They oohed and aahed with Doc B and when the x-ray room was free, they took him in. (They also kicked me out of the room and told me to go get Juice. Something about a risk of pregnancy for me…yeah right!)
On the x-ray you can still kind of see the break. It’s very faint. And Doc B said all the edges look defined. It will be gone in a week or so but he doesn’t need anything else. We asked about the physical therapy and he said no. Babies bounce back so quickly and he’s already starting to use the leg properly. In a week or so it should be as if he never had a cast.
One thing he did mention is that when a baby breaks a long bone like this one, sometimes the blood flow is interrupted. Rarely, one leg will grow longer or be shorter than the other one because of this. It’s rare, but we need to keep an eye out for it.
We were sad, in a bitter sweet way, to leave Doc B. He was really great.
Today he has been moving his leg more and more. He even took a few crawling steps around dinner time! He also pulled himself up on his feet once. He’s going to come through this with flying colors.
These are the pictures the office manager took at the doctor’s office when they had to fix Pirate’s cast. That’s Juice’s head you see, along with a nurse and Doc B. And of course, poor little Pirate. Only 14 more days till the cast comes off!
Every time I change Pirate’s diaper or get a whiff of his cast (which is really starting to smell) I think of that Friends Episode when Phoebe sings about a smelly cat.
It’s been a few days since I’ve been singing it under my breath and it’s stuck in my head.
Diapering has been a challenge. Originally we were cutting up incontinence pads to enhance the absorption of the diapers across the front and back. 2 days ago, I found a disintegrated pad in his diaper. Gross! Also gross, the fact that it disintegrated up the front of his cast. I had to dig out little wet balls of fluffy beady things. Not cool. I took the hair dryer to it. It didn’t really help.
So, cutting up the pads and breaking their water lock seal is bad. Check.
There is also quite a bit of plastic wrap involved. At first I was more worried about a really messy poop in the diaper and staining all over. But now, I’m more worried about the pee and how it soaks into everything. We shove plastic wrap around all the leg openings and up the front quite a ways. To change his diaper now it takes about 10 minutes of carefully tucking, prodding, drying, and taping.
And yet, with all of that, he managed to pee on me yesterday.
We had to go back and see the ortho Doc B today because he has wiggled so much his cast is breaking. Both legs have cracked and the broken one moved. It’s not supposed to move! So back to Doc B’s. He put about 4 rolls of plaster around him again and reinforced it with another roll.
It’s a really good thing Pirate is so mellow.
We monopolized the staff again and they took some more pictures. I asked them to send them to me so I’ll post them when I can. They even loaned us about 10 colored pens for people to sign the cast with. Doc B is still insistent that I take it off the night before so I will. I asked him what would happen if the leg was still broken and he had to have another cast and he said, “That won’t happen. They heal fast.” Okay…March 1st! Good bye smelly cast!
