All Things Haley: Journal #2 - Fussy Britches and Paranoia

Sometimes it's super fun to name these posts!

I woke up this morning way too early and cursed baby duty yet again. Caleb was up at 4:15 and wouldn't go back to bed. He was crying non-stop and no amount of patting his chest or shushing him was working. So it was off to the kitchen to warm up a bottle.

After I changed and fed him, it was about 4:40 and he had started to fall asleep in my arms. As soon as I put him in his crib it was more crying and another 20 minutes or so went by before he finally passed out. Grace had woken up crying before I fed him so I replaced her binky and she fell back to sleep. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes after Caleb finally fell back asleep she was up crying again.

Around 5:15 I gave her a binky again. Then five minutes later I found her on her hands and knees in her crib crying. Another five minutes and this time she was sitting up in the corner of her crib crying. This went on for about 20 minutes before I decided to just warm up her bottle and feed her as well. She usually sleeps until around 6:15 or 6:30 before waking up for good. Now it was 5:30 and I wasn't happy about the prospect of being up for the day seeing as I'd been awake since 4:15.

She took her bottle pretty quickly- we just switched her to the level 3 nipples that flow faster, so that's a plus (mini-pause to note that we also tried to switch Caleb but little man is very sensitive about his liquid flow and wasn't having the new fast flow. He just pulled off the bottle every three seconds to grunt or complain and then kept trying to eat...not a faster eating situation for anyone involved.). I tried to get her to fall back asleep in my arms with her binky but she wanted to play. So, I did what any good mother would do; I put her back in her crib awake. It was before 6am, what am I?

Ben and I got a little more sleep before I had to wake up at 6:30 to get in the shower, already too late for the day. I was feeling pretty lucky that Grace actually fell back to sleep after I put her down, that doesn't happen often!

Daddy had a big day at work so I handled all of the morning feedings and getting the kids ready so he could rest a little extra. I got myself ready before waking them each up one at a time to get dressed and then hang out in the play area until it was time to go. I was pretty excited at the prospect of dressing the babies in some new clothes- Caleb was wearing a jumper that said "BEACH HUNK" and Grace had the most adorable little blue and white striped dress...9 months even! Oh the things that excite me nowadays.

I took Caleb's temperature which had been down since yesterday morning- a perfect 98- so we were good to go. His eye was still pink all the way around and was still looking kind of swollen, so I decided I'd call the doctor later to get their thoughts but still take him to school. I packed up the bottles, Grace's binky, extra clothes, and my own stuff and we headed off.

We dropped off the little ones with some serious instructions about watching Caleb for fever, twitching, excessive cough, new eye symptoms...anything out of the ordinary and then ignored the look of "Seriously? He's fine, you're paranoid" as we walked out the door. I've sort of accepted the fact that I'm a bit paranoid now when it comes to the littles, particularly Mr. Caleb. He's been slightly high maintanence and almost every time I call or take him in, our doctors worry that there's something sort of serious going on as well. I'm also lucky that I have another baby to prove that I'm not just crazy- I don't call the doctor every third day for her because there just isn't reason to. She's usually acting pretty healthy. Now, if I was calling the doctor or taking them BOTH into be seen all the time, then we'd have a problem. But if I can chill about Grace, then I can't be a truly paranoid Mommy, right?

I dropped off Ben and then checked in quickly at the office before I had to run out to my own doctor's appointment for some bloodwork. A quick trip to the lab and I was back to work. After about three hours I started thinking about Caleb and decided I needed to check in on his eye and call the doctor. I went to daycare to see how it was looking and it was still just as pink. When I got there, he was all smiles and very happy to see me. Grace noticed me as she sat in the middle of the room playing and started to cry. The teacher picked her up and brought her over and she was incredibly giggly and smiley. I got her to laugh and the teacher was super surprised, I'm not sure that she's ever laughed there before...sad. This was the first time I'd ever dropped in and actually seen them in the middle of the day at this new place and it wasn't my favorite scenario. They don't let parents into the room so I could only see them over the half door and didn't actually hold them. It broke my heart to leave again, but they didn't seem too impacted by it.

After my visit I called and left a message for the doc. When she called back, she seemed to think the eye was just some irritation and only needed to be seen if it got worse or if I was concerned. Then we talked more about his trip to the ER, she hadn't heard how it went. I let her know that we were sent home without much information as they didn't think it was a febrile seizure. She explained that if they don't actually see the seizure, it's nearly impossible to do anything about it. She also explained that a seizure can present in a variety of ways, including sporadic jerking motion or even just staring episodes. After talking some more about his recent behavior she felt it was a good idea to schedule an appointment with a pediatric neurologist to help understand a little more about what's going on with him. She also said that if he has a tendency toward seizures, a fever could lower his tolerance and change how they present.

It wasn't the best conversation, I was a little scared afterward. She told me before hanging up that she has a really hard time reading me. She said that I'm always really calm when I call her, even when telling her that my infant was having spasms, so she has trouble deciphering the seriousness of the situation. She said that if I'm concerned, then she's concerned based on how I've treated his past history. I thought that was pretty ironic seeing as I'm always feeling overly paranoid or obsessive. I guess I just feel like everytime we've had to go to the hospital or gotten tests, it's always turned out negative or fine, so there's no reason to really panic...at least not yet. I feel the same about the spasms or whatever they were- until we get some result back that has cause for serious concern, then I'll just continue with caution rather than with panic. But I can see how that would be slightly confusing for a doctor over the phone.

Anyway, I finished up work today and was amped to go pick up my babies. We actually left the office a few minutes early which NEVER happens! I had called to schedule an appointment with the neurologist and Ben and I talked all about it just before we left. We're both a little worried, and honestly just sad about the questions at hand. I hope that little man is ok.

The twins were more than happy when we arrived! They were in great moods and full of laughs as we loaded them into their car seats. I talked for about ten minutes to their teacher about the fact that I need her to really watch Caleb and let me know how he's doing since I can't observe him as much as she can (I hate that) for this upcoming appointment. She wasn't too worried about him and feels pretty strongly that he's just a little delayed but nothing more than many boys his size. I still want to be cautious so it was good to talk to her about that.

When we got home it was play time and then time for dinner. We fed them green beans and then peaches with raspberries; can you guess which of those went over better with the littles? Yeah, neither of them had more than three bites of green beans. I mean, I don't blame them- have you tasted pureed green beans? Gnarley.

We got a new toy today and I spent a while putting it together so they could play with it before bed time. I got some good shots of Gracie playing with it but was feeding littleMiss when Caleb was playing with it unfortunately. Caleb seemed much better after we picked him up today. He was using his legs again to stand up and a lot more alert and smiley again. This weekend he just seemed sick and lethargic all the time...not my favorite Caleb sentiment. It was good to have him and his cheerfulness back. Grace on the other hand was a fussy britches all evening. Her teacher said she'd been fussy all day and had a little fever before we picked her up. She was 100.6 when I took it tonight so she got a little tylenol but it didn't seem to help. She was super needy and seemed really tired. I'm not sure if she's just teething or if her ear infection didn't clear up, but we'll see what happens tomorrow.

We cleaned them up, got their bottles all ready, and then started bedtime. Grace fell asleep with Daddy pretty quickly and Caleb did the same with me. They both went down without a hitch- no cries! Gotta love those perfect bed times! Ben and I sat down on the couch right after putting them down and promptly passed out for about an hour. Thank goodness he had already washed and made all of the bottles, now it's just finishing up the blog, making dinner, Ben's workout, and then sleep time! So, SO glad I'm not on baby duty tonight. I'm exhausted yet again.

Alright- I'm going to have to figure out how to cut down on these posts, they're novels!

Mmmm, fruit is so much better than that green stuff.

Caleb distracted by all of the music coming from...

Grace playing with the NEW TOY!

How cool is this thing? They can play the piano with their feet, with their hands, there's all kinds of extra bells and whistles and music coming out of everthing. Of course, well equipped with a volume and OFF button.