Contagious

That's what the doc says she is.  Contagious. 

 

 

She wasn't 100% certain, but said that she heard something in Vaiosina's lungs.  Pair that with her nasty cough and voila!  She's getting treated for bronchitis.  There was some redness around her throat, but the strep test came back negative.  The 5-day doses of Zithromax should (hopefully) get rid of the bronchitis!

 

She also can't go back to the daycare center until Friday. That means I'm off from work both days.  Although it's awesome that I get some time off to be with her...I'm missing a lot at work.  It's totally killing the workaholic in me.

 

In any case, the trip to the doc was actually a great one.  Where Vaiosina usually starts whimpering the second Dr. Simpson calls her name, she gladly went in and came out tear free.  Even bear-bear got the full treatment.  What a great pediatrician we have!

 

Well, this picture doesn't show Dr. Simpson, but a nurse who took Vaiosina's vitals.  Poor thing...doesn't she look miserable?  And tired?  After all, she did wake up at 0230 with a 102.9 degree fever.

 

While I'm at it, let me give you her stats (2 years, 1 month):
Weight: 28.5 lbs (75% percentile)
Length: 34 in (86% percentile)
Head: 48 cm
No change from her 2 year appt stats

 

And forget that she's wearing the exact same outfit she wore in the picture I posted of her yesterday.  Hey, I do laundry like a maniac around here!

 

Up until this morning, Malu had spent the last three days training at the top of a mountain in Berchtesgaden with his company and was essentially unreachable.  He didn't find out until this morning that she's been sick.  Stuff like this can be really stressful for a mom flying solo.  I mean, I was practically in tears when he finally called and I broke the news to him.

 

I think what gets me so emotional is the fact that he hasn't officially deployed yet and she's already getting sick.  I have a long way to go, but I've managed to get through unscathed so far.  Tired, but unscathed.  Nope, no panicking from this mama. I'm on a roll!  Let's see how long I can keep this momentum! 

 

Thank goodness for caring friends and an office crew that definitely has my back; not to mention the outpour of encouragement from family and friends through Facebook.  I wouldn't be able to do any of this without you!

 

Anyway, better get to bed.  Got a full day ahead of me and this girl keeps me on my toes even when she's sick!

 

Good night!

~18 Months~

So I got sick AGAIN.  Same thing, only this time, I got sinusitis, which was what pretty much put me out.  I was so sick, I missed two days of work this week.  I spent so much time in the last couple days just trying to get some rest that blogging has just fallen to the wayside. 

Anyway....this post is not about me!  It's about Sina turning 18 months this week!  Can you guys believe it?

I'll probably save the details about this past month for another post.  Today, I thought I'd share pictures from Sina's 18 month well-baby appointment.  The last time Sina saw the doctor was at her one-year mark.  Since then, she'd visited the doctor twice for bronchitis...so, she knows the clinic very well.

Let's just say that Sina IS NOT a fan of the clinic...or the doctor (even though Dr. Simpson is as sweet as can be), whether or not shots are involved.

As soon as the nurse called her name to take her vitals, the tears started flowing.  I think I've said this before, but it was very reminiscent of visits to the vet (or Pet Smart) with our dog Lucy, who knew exactly where she was with one sniff, and usually bolted for the door immediately thereafter.

Good thing mommy daddy was there.  She latched onto him for dear life.  The nurse took her stats:

Weight - 25.2 lbs (63rd percentile)
Length - 32.9 in (81st percentile)
Head Circumference - 18.9 in (85th percentile)

See the change from her one year appointment!

She cried even harder when Dr. Simpson showed up with her stethoscope and really cold hands.  It was then that we found out that Sina has an infection in both ears that we're now treating with antibiotics.  Poor baby.  We didn't suspect a thing!  Aside from a cold that snuck up on her sometime last week, she'd been her usual, happy-go-lucky self.  I actually think I jinxed the poor girl because I had just raved to a friend about how she'd never had an ear infection and look what happened.  Next time, I'll keep my mouth shut!

Aside from that, she's on track in terms of her physical, mental, and social development and we couldn't be happier.  I guess we happen to be doing some things right :)

I'm looking forward to this weekend.  Hopefully, I'll be able to spend time updating this blog!

Happy Friday everyone!!!

~One Week Old~

I honestly don't know where the time has gone.  Our baby girl will be one week old tomorrow.  Three days ago, I was holding her and I looked over at Malu with tears in my eyes and said, "She's three days old today.  I wish she could stay this way forever!"  And I do.  Although we've been extremely exhausted getting into a new routine and really just "figuring her out", we have been having so much fun with her.  This particular photo was taken during her first photo shoot--but I'll get to that in a little bit.  Baby V has had a pretty busy week!

On Tuesday, we took her back to the hospital for her 48-hour check up.  Dr. Howze was impressed by how quickly she had returned to her birth weight.  Apparently, some children take several weeks to a month to do that.  But Baby V is as healthy as a horse.  While I was there, I scheduled her two week follow-up!

The next day, we returned to the hospital to get her birth certificate request in and then went on post to get her into the Army's dependent system.  So now she's an official military child! For some reason, I thought that she was going to get issued a military ID card, but that won't happen until she's 10 years old--which makes sense, because I didn't get mine until that age.  It brought back some memories about how excited I was to have my own card.  Funny.

Oh, and the nightly dinners from friends continued.  Yesterday the Rawlings Family brought us pasta for dinner.  But see, I consider this a real Italian meal because Laura is actually Italian and her pasta dishes are fantastic and authentic.  The dinner was delicious!  She brought a salad with a delicious, sweet vinaigarette dressing (with basil and grape tomatoes) as well as garlic bread, and a pasta with bacon, mushrooms, and peas.  Yum!  I'm hoping she'll want to share the recipes for the salad dressing as well as the pasta.  Oh, and of course, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies for dessert!  We love you Laura, Matt and Joey!  Thanks so much for a fabulous Wednesday dinner! 

The dinners will be halting for the rest of the week because we decided, at the last minute, to make the drive up to Colorado Springs to visit my parents.  But thanks so much, again, to all of our El Paso friends for being so gracious and making our first week with Baby V worry and hassle-free!

Today, Baby V had her first professional photo session.  A few months ago, I'd met Theresa at the spring bazaar on Fort Bliss and immediately knew that she was going to be the one to take our baby's first pictures.  Malu and I had such a wonderful time watching both Theresa and Baby V at work. 

Oh, I can't wait for the proofs to come out and to share the final ones with  you guys!  I was just lucky enough to capture the picture above myself as a kinda-sneak peek.  For those of you in the El Paso area (and I know there are some having babies in the near future!), check Theresa out at her Creative Flair Photography website and blog.  She's so sweet, has a beautiful portfolio and was so very patient with Baby V and with Malu and I.  I'm sure she'd do beautiful photos for you and your families!

And that pretty much wraps up our first week!  So yeah, we're heading up to Colorado Springs tomorrow.  We gave into my mom's guilt-tripping (which is extremely easy to do) and are going to spend tonight packing up for it.  Let's hope Malu's able to get enough sleep throughout the night to make the 9-hour drive without difficulty tomorrow!