I Heart Faces: Blue
I think Spaghettio's are a rite of passage for all kids. For a two year-old it's a battle between messy red sauce and getting the hang of that spoon and fork. It's about denying the temptation to put down the utensils and just dig in with her hands. It's about the question "How did she manage to get sauce there?" It's about the disappointment in those crystal blue eyes when she realizes they are all gone. Because really, couldn't we all use some more Spaghettio's?
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The Brute Force Approach
You know how it goes... The copier's broken. You've tried everything you can think of to fix it, but nothing's working. What's your gut instinct? Kick the thing! Office Space it! (If that's not what came to mind, you are lying to yourself. Quit being so self-righteous!) When intellect fails, bring on the brute force.
I've talked about Quinn's reflux in previous posts. It started out in early August and has gotten progressively worse. She's still not a spitter, but the heartburn it causes her is no joke. Almost every day from about 11-5 Quinn screams. It's one big game of screaming broken up by one or two short naps and a handful of distractions. We've tried so much, stuff for the reflux and anything else it could be, and nothing seems to work. Thickening bottles, Zantac, Prevacid, Levsin, Mylicon, sitting up for 30 minutes after feedings, I've stopped eating obvious dairy... We've taken everything a week at a time--gave it a chance to work. It's the logical thing to do. If we changed too many things at a time we wouldn't know what worked. I know the answer now - none of that did. She's still screaming and crying almost daily. It breaks my heart to watch, and I can only imagine how she feels.
I've had it. Today, after (another) appointment with her doctor, Nathan and I decided on a new path. Screw logic. Bring on the brute force. Now, to be clear, I am not planning on kicking my child. That would be mean. But I'm tired of taking it one thing at a time and watching her suffer while we try to make a lucky guess. I'm done with it. So, I'm still not eating obvious dairy, we are doubling (and possibly QUADRUPLING) the amount of rice cereal in her bottle, we are doubling her dose of Prevacid, and giving tylenol for pain if her fits continue to get bad. I don't care if I don't know exactly what worked right now, I just want it to work. We're throwing everything we've got at it. We can back stuff off later to see what causes a change in behavior and isolate what works that way. No need for her to suffer. And the ped gave us 2 cans of Alimentum to throw into the mix if none of that works. We'll find a way to make her feel better.
My kids are kind of reflux freaks. One of the easier ways to pinpoint reflux in a baby is poor weight gain. Not my kids. 95% or better for weight. Quinn weighed 16lbs 3oz today. She's not hurting for pounds, that's for sure. I am very thankful for that. I don't know if I could handle it if it was more than pain. 3, 4, 5 hours a day of screaming is hard enough. Trust me, I've spent enough time curled up on the floor next to her crying right along with her.
I actually looked in Rory's baby book today and Quinn is following her growth curve almost exactly. Of course, that's about where the similarities end (so far). Rory was the restless one. She started rolling back to belly before she turned three months old and was rolling both ways before she turned four months. She was up on all fours by 5 months, crawling and pulling up at 7 months and walking at 10 months. She hated sitting still. Still does. Quinn could care less. She turned 4 months old today and finally got up the gusto to roll *most* of the way over (back to belly). Silly kid.
Wow. It got late and I wrote a lot. But I'll end with two last thoughts:
1) Soy milk is disgusting.
2) I'd kill for some cheese right now.
I Heart Faces: Week 36
Can babies be contemplative?
Because I'd swear Quinn is (when she's not screaming, of course).
For my pets entry, I wanted to share a picture of my cousin's feisty little red-brown miniature pinscher Capers. (Yes, like the food. My cousin is a chef.) Bonkers dog. He makes me smile.
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Caption This
A few years ago, we had a tradition with several of our friends--Friday emails. Every Friday, we'd start some random email conversation to keep us occupied at work while we waited for the weekend to come. As a part of that, we'd often have a picture that we came up with captions for (as proof of our endless creativity, we referred to it as "caption this"), just to provide a little more amusement. When I took this picture, I thought it was perfect for a revisit of the old tradition. So....
Caption This
letters not sent and calls not made
Writing can be very cathartic for me. Judging by the sheer number of blogs out in the internet world, I'm guessing that I'm not the only one. I've written my fair share of journals to get out my thoughts--and letters too. Not that I've sent the letters (you know how that goes-write it to get it off of your chest and not go against your better judgement by mouthing off about something that will kick you in the butt later), but it was good to write them.
So in that vein, here's the call I didn't make today (but oh, so desperately wanted to):
"Beep-beep-beep (that's me pushing contacts, F, and send)."
(Automated response) "Thank you for calling ____Pediatrics. Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah, press zero." *pushes zero*
Finally a real person: "Good afternoon, ____ Peds."
Me: "Hi. I've been wating for a call from ***** (I'll save some integrity and keep that name to myself) since about 10 o'clock this morning in regards to my 3 month old. Could you please put me through to her?"
*****: "Hi, can I help you?"
Me: "I called at 10 this morning and then again around 4:30 this afteroon, you know, in reference to my poor 3 month old that has been screaming for about a month straight. We were supposed to talk today about changing her medications if they didn't work. Well guess what--they don't. She's still screaming. And actually, tonight has been the worst night yet. 2 hours straight. That's how long she was screaming for. That's how long I had to listen to my precious baby girl scream because neither you, nor the other 5 doctors at the pratice could take 2 minutes out of your day to return my call earlier. That's how long I had to sit and feel absolutely helpless because I couldn't do ANYTHING to make her feel better. I'm at my wits end because she's suffering and I can't fix it. You are supposed to help me, but you aren't doing anything. But then, what should I expect? Rory still hasn't gotten her 2 year shots because you guys can't get records straight. And don't even get started on when I called to check on it and your office staff told me 'Um, it's 4:30. You'll need to call back tomorrow.' I thought your office hours went until 5? I guess taking 30 seconds to look at a file for a patient that was TOLD TO CALL is a little too much. But I digress. I'm angry. My girl is suffering and now she's going to have to suffer for at least one more day because you were too busy. Thanks for nothing."
(I hang up before ***** could get a word in edgewise because she wasn't going to help anyway.)
I'm sure it would be the right thing for me to do to just swallow this and not post it, but I'm angry and I need to share it with someone other than the doc's office. Because even though they were worthless today (and a couple of other times, too), I'd rather not burn bridges with the girls' doctors. I have to have someone to take them to while I decide whether or not I want to move to a different practice.
Moral of the story - Don't mess with my girls.
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If you live in Greenville and have kids, go to Dr. Phillips at Eastern Pediatrics. He's WONDERFUL. On second thought... don't. If you ever have to switch doctors you'll never be happy. I know I'm not. Is it overkill to drive 2 hours for check-ups and sick visits? What if you know that no matter when you call, even if it's 9:30 on a Sunday night, the doctor himself (or now there's a herself, too) will answer and help you with your kid? Is it less insane then? Because I'm really thinking about it.
A Mommy & Rory Day
Ever since we brought Quinn home, Rory has been a wonderful big sister. She has had her jealous moments here and there, but who wouldn't--Quinn needs a lot of attention and Rory doesn't get as much as she used to. I've been wanting to have a "Mommy & Rory Day" for awhile. We tried to make plans to go to the beach a couple of weekends ago, but the weather had other ideas. So last week, Nathan worked from home to take care of Quinn and Rory and I took off to Asheboro. Time to see the animals.Rory is at such a fun age. She's so smart and talkative (obnoxiously so, sometimes). She loves her book and she loves talking about animals. We spent time earlier in the week talking about the zoo and how the animals lived there. I mentioned a few animals, but I didn't want to get her hopes up too much. There are no guarantees with zoos--if the lion isn't in the mood to be seen, you just get a bunch of grass. If you've never been to the zoo in Asheboro, it's divided up into two (giant) parts. One side is North America and the other is Africa. My game plan was to hit Africa first. Not that it would be an ideal situation, but we could happen across bears and alligators here in NC; I wanted Rory to see the giraffes and elephants (it certainly wasn't what I wanted to see the most).The very first viewing spot was for the giraffes and zebras. Rory just looked for a few minutes, and then started yelling "horsey! horsey!" She just couldn't stop staring at them.
After the zebras and giraffes, we walked around to see the chimpanzees and gorillas. Rory couldn't have cared less about the chimps, but I thought they were pretty cool. The gorillas on the other hand, got her attention.
After the gorillas, we looped back around to the giraffe feeding station. We were able to get much closer to a giraffe there. He wouldn't come over to eat, but it was much better than our other view. Rory kept trying to convince the giraffe to come closer--"Hello, giraffe! Come here, please!" We watched him walk around for awhile and then continued on our way.
I really thought that Rory would love the elephant, but really, I was the one who enjoyed her more. She was so beautiful. It was just fascinating to watch her eat and walk. I was surprised at how close she was and how long she stayed there. Especially given there was a sign near the elephant enclosure that said it can be rare to get a good look at them because they shy away from noise--and I ran over there when I saw here and Rory kept yelling "El-phant!" She was quite the brave pachyderm.
We skipped out on going to see the rhinos because lunchtime was calling. But we did stop to take a picture with a cool rhino statue.
After lunch, we headed to the North America animals. This is the grizzly bear. He was waking up from a nap when we got to his enclosure. The heat of the day was really evident when we got to the North American animals. The Africa animals were in their element, but the NA animals were all in the shade or in the water. Mr. Grizzly was no different. He had been napping with half of his body in the water.
After the grizzly we took a stop at the KidZone. They had a really neat wall where the kids could either draw with chalk or "paint" on the wall with water.
The sea lions and seals were her other favorite exhibit after the giraffes. We stayed there for a LONG time. Every time I asked her if we could go, she would just tell me "no, no leave." When the sea lions would jump off and start swimming Rory would just laugh and laugh... I love that laugh. I even got her to bark like the seals. Loved it. (I asked how the seals were handling the heat and found out that the water was kept at 58 degrees, so they would just jump in whenever they got hot. 58 degree water sounded good. It was that hot.)
We had a great day. By the time we were leaving the zoo it was 4 o'clock. Rory had a long day and was super exhausted by the time we left. As we headed out, we stopped by the zoo store and picked up a souvenir. Unfortunately, it was very similar to toys that we buy for Darby and it was missing an eye within 20 minutes of being home. I sewed a button eye on in it's place. Gave it a little character.
She is such a sweet girl. I really had a blast with her. I'm looking forward to our next trip. :)
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