my poor baby

this morning at 5am caitlin woke up with a fever, again. i'm getting pretty good at expecting this on a daily basis now, sad as it seems. what i'm NOT getting good at is giving her tylenol/motrin. she is one persistant stubborn little girl. after about 20 minutes of fighting with her to take it and wasting about 1/3 the bottle in the process i gave up and woke up daddy to help. even with two people its a major struggle to get her to injest this stuff. finally i got her to swallow about 1/4 the required dosage. we also had her in just her diaper with a cool washcloth on her body. we put her in her favorite spot-the tv recliner-and waited till she got sleepy enough to go back to her crib.

around 9 i called the pediatrician and got an appointment for 11am. chris called in to work to take off a half day so he could help me out. she was still burning up by the time we arrived at the doctors. 103 to be exact. so the nurse said she would bring us some motrin. and yes, another struggle ensued. but this time the doctor (actually we saw the PA who i really really like, so that was a plus!) helped us give caitlin the motrin. even so, she only swallowed about 1/4 of the dose, again. most of it ended up on the doctor's glasses, clothes and on us.

anyway, after doing an exam it was determined that caitlin had an ear infection in both ears and sore throat. she had also developed a rash which the dr. said was due to the fever and would get worse before getting better, but not to worry about it. then the nurse came back in and did a swab test for flu and strep. after the strep test caitlin vomited. and unfortunatly there went the 1/4 of motrin from earlier, plus other liquids, all over chris who was holding her, and the chair, and the floor. just lovely. the tests turned out to be negative, thankfully, and the dr gave us a prescription for antibiotic that should help the ears.

the only problem will be getting her to swallow the medicine! thakfully its only once a day for 5 days. i will try to be as sneaky as possible in mixing it with other foods/juice. but caitlin is a smart girl and i'm afraid will know something is different. so please pray we have success! the antibiotic is too expensive to be wasted on our clothes. or the floor.

jumping

this is how caitlin jumps :)

she is official

caitlin is now an official part of the american population should anyone need to find her in 70 years!

slide and sandbox

we were recently at a friends birthday party and they had a slide and sandbox which caitlin fully enjoyed!


having fun with Opa's help!



who needs the sandbox when you have 2 buckets?

eye update

even though caitlins eyes were clear this morning i went to the childrens urgent care center just to get her checked out and ask some questions. but the wait was gonna be forever, so i decided to leave. went to b'day party and had a fun time. but then after playing outside caitlins eyes got a little green gunk. so i called the "dial-a-nurse" thing at the Methodist Childrens Hospital and asked the nurse about baby benedryl, etc. and got the directions for caitlins size and weight. nurse said if there was a fever of 100.4 or greater plus green eye goup, plus red eyelids all at the same time then she would need to be seen asap. (which she has had all three in the past 2 weeks, but at different times!) so as it stands its either allergies or her nose is so stuffed the congestion is coming out her eyes (sounds gross!) and to just keep her passageways clear and wash her face and wipe her eyes with cottonball soaked in warm water. so i feel better and hopefully caitlin will too once she takes some allergy meds.

yucky eyes and haircut

ever since putting the crib back caitlin has been sleeping like a baby! oh wait.... anyway, we are both getting full nights sleeps again. what a difference that makes. but this week the drama came in the form of sick eyes. caitlin woke one day with the skin above and below her eye being all pink. the eyeball itself isnt red, just the skin. and green discharge in her eyes. i'm not sure what to make of it. i had some antibiotic eye cream that i've been using (i still had it from when she had a clogged tear duct when she was a couple months old) and its made the pink go away and the green to subside a little. but whenever caitlin is outside playing the green goup comes back in force. its just lovely. i'm really not sure whether or not to take her to the doctor..i'm thinking its allergies to something in the yard (it happend at my parents house too, so its not just my yard that affects her). i asked the pharmacist at Target about baby benedryl and she said it would be best to consult her pediatrician. and since caitlin is suppossed to go to a birthday party tomorrow where i'm pretty sure there will be outside playing and lots of other kids i'm thinking of taking her to the dr. anyway today. but we'll see.

and yesterday caitlin had her first hair cut! we were over at my parents house and Mamaw cut off the straggly hairs in the back. i took some photos of the event on my phone but i need to upload those to the computer. i'll post them soon. caitlins hair is still very fine and thin so it will be awhile before a major haircut is needed. but none the less i kept the hairs to put in her baby book :)

toddler bed:FAIL

the night before last was HORRIBLE and last night we put the mattress on the ground and had her sleep that way. i was up 3 times with her even like that. so i made the executive decision to go back to the crib starting tonight. at least for awhile till she resumes her sleeping through the night behavior like she was doing so good with before getting sick. and maybe even until summer break when chris will be around during the day and it wont matter that i'm so sleep deprived. anyway, in some ways i feel like a failure. but i think a sound mind and healthy caitlin are more important.

toddler bed struggle

i've ranted alot about this the past few days on facebook, so most of you prob already know whats been going on. but just in case you dont...

the fist night with the toddler bed i went in to check on caitlin around 2am. i found her curled up in a ball on the floor. so at some point she must have fallen out. we had placed her bean bag up against the bed opening to cushon any type of fall. well, i decided to just put some blankets on the ground and let her spend the rest of the night there.

the next day i could tell she didnt sleep very well. cranky and grouchy and oh so very tired. come nap time i could tell she really wanted to go to sleep so i placed her in her bed. no way was she gonna go..she screamed and fussed up a storm. so i rocked her in the chair and once she was almost alseep i tried placing her in her bed. nope. not gonna happen. so then i sat with her on my bed and she fell asleep there. after about 10 minutes i decided to try her bed one more time. no way. so i tried a different tactic: i moved her bed to a different spot in the room. we put on fun music in her room and danced around. she sat in her bed and we threw animals back and forth at eachother having a fun fun time. i wanted to make the room a positive experience after her earlier tries. then i decided to go do some errands and get out of the house. she was good for that. and then on the way home she feel asleep in the car.

so once i got home i gently placed her again in her bed. and you know what? she stayed! amazing! about 2.5 hrs later she came out into the living room where i was. i was so proud of my little girl!

and then last night when it came time for bed i placed her in it and we read a book. i put on her lullabye music and left the room. she cried a minute or so then settled down. around 2:30 this morning i heard her get up. so i went to check on her and after changing her diaper i placed her back in the bed. she got up again. i put her back. and again. and again. after 4 tries of which she cried like i was the meanest mom in the world she settled down and went to sleep where she stayed the rest of the night without falling out.

and just now, for naptime today, i only had to put her back in the bed twice before she stayed. so all in all i think she is getting the hang of it. i long for the day when i can say "time for bed caitlin" and she will willingly go and go to sleep. i can dream, can't i? ... :)

spring is coming

captured some cute pics on my phone of caitlin enjoying the beautiful weather

big girl bed

so i was at the store and they had a toddler bed...caitlin got in it and loved it. kept saying "night night". it was hard to get her out. so this afternoon i transformed hers. here we go! my baby is growing up (snif, snif)

the bed at the store

caitlin's transformed bed

what caitlin really thinks of her 'new' bed (caitlin insisted wearing her shirt like that.. i think she is making a fashion statement with the off the shoulder look)

singing with elmo

my parents got caitlin a very cool cd where elmo sings and inserts the name Caitlin during the songs. i played it for the first time in the car today and this was her reaction to one of the songs (sing along if you'd like!):

fever

since sunday afternoon caitlin has been running a fever. at first i thought it was due to some teething (even though she's never run fever before when thats happened). but she's had a runny nose for awhile and a slight cough, so i'm thinking now its either a cold or allergies. either way there isnt anything a pediatrician can do (so i've been told before) so i've just been giving her tylenol and ibuprofin. thankfully she likes the taste of those! her energy level is a little less than usual, but definitely not as wiped out as i would be if i were running a fever for 2.5 days!! you can tell in her eyes though that she's not feeling 100%. i just hate this though...i wish i knew what was going on and how to fix it!

UPDATE:

the doctor said it was a virus so we just have to wait it out. she said caitln's throat was red and to give her slush and popsicles. this afternoon caitlin is feeling alot better..figures that i'd go to the doctor and spend the money and then a couple hours caitlin is acting normal. geesh. anyway, i'm just glad that she is doing better.