Doctor Keis

I scheduled a follow-up doctor's appointment, to check on the monster in James' ear. Turns out, it's gone!

I was pleasantly surprised that James didn't put up a fight or cry about going to the doctor. It probably helped that I mentioned going out for a donut afterwards. James asked for a bagel instead. DEAL!

Waiting for the doctor, Blankie was not far away.



James showed me his "waiting face".


This is his "surprised face".



James was so charming and wonderful when the doctor came in.

And cooperative!

He left the doctor's office saying, "The doctor's office is cool!" The nurses all smiled :)

We headed to Panera for a bagel. I had coffee, sweeeeeeeet coffee.

This is the bagel piece that James said looked like Batman's mask.

Relief. No lingering ear infection. A happy, well-fed child. A happy Mommy!

Baby Happy, Baby Sad

Artwork from this week- a Feather Collage.



There's a book that we read at bedtime now called Baby Happy, Baby Sad. The Sad Baby is shown first and he is sick. I tell James that the Baby is sad because he didn't take his medicine. The Happy Baby is playing and having fun because he took his medicine!

Well, I don't think this has quite sunk in with James. He refuses to take his medicine easily. Tonight was the worst. I feel sick that I need to restrain James to get the medicine down his throat. I had one of my fingers in his mouth to get his jaw open just a bit, to get the syringe in there. Owwwwww! That kid is strong!! Sadly, I am winning this battle. I need to. I need to get these antibiotics in his system. There are lots of hugs and kisses after the medicine trauma but it still pains me.

On Friday we had a false alarm with daycare. They called us and told us that James had a temperature of nearly 103 and we needed to pick him up ASAP. I left work in a hurry to get to James while Jim called the doctor. We might have jumped the gun on that one. I brought James home immediately and took his temperature. It was 98! Nothing. He was acting so normally and so happy I started to doubt the daycare and their thermometer accuracy.

I called the clinic and spoke to a nurse. She agreed that it was an impossibility that James' temperature could have gone down THAT much in an hour. We also explained that we were told he had an ear infection on Tuesday and we also missed a dose of antibiotics the night before. Well, we ended up cancelling his appointment. I took his temperature again after naptime and he was of course fine. James has shown NO sign of illness all weekend.

Really, I felt panicked as I drove to pick him up from daycare. With everything going around, to hear about my baby with a temperature?! Scary but it ended up fine.

Today we went to the apple orchard! James was so excited to see the apples. We promised him pumpkin pie and cider. He also got a cookie bonus :)





Mmmm. Cider chocolate chip cookies!


On the way out James insisted on smelling the flowers. So cute.






Back at home, James has LOVED playing in his new "clubhouse" and tunnels. I need to get better pictures of the whole clubhouse, but here he is looking through the tunnel. He was crabbypants after his nap.


A balloon from his birthday party. It was floating around without a string and it kept floating up to the top of the living room ceiling until we had the bright idea of reconnecting it to some curling ribbon. James is having a good time chasing the balloon around the house.




No plans tomorrow! Probably football and baking with apples :)

My tooth is feeling better. It still hurts occasionally and I don't like taking the painkillers- really they don't seem to affect me much.

3 year Wellness check

James did NOT like the gown.


Heh. His (diapered) butt is hanging out!


Dr. Keis is wonderful with James. She can always get him to smile!






I was surprised that James cooperated with the vision screening. Instead of identifying letters in this test, he found the ice cream cone, the grapes, the basketball, and the cookie!


The Stats:
Weight: 33 lbs (64 percentile)
Height: 37 1/4 inches (37 percentile)
Blood pressure: 92/58
BMI: 16.76%

I asked about the low percentile for height but he is right on target for a natural progression from his earlier stats. Dr. Keis said that James will most likely reach 5' 9" or 5'10" at this rate.

We discussed his eating, his potty training, and his learning/behavior. All normal :) I am going to try and be tougher about meals (no side meals, and not giving in) at her suggestion, and also I'm really going to focus on potty training during my Christmas break. We're also switching to skim milk and I'm going to try and introduce vitamins again. Dr. Keis suggested that James help me buy the vitamins so he has some buy-in and wants to take them. Some of them have characters that he'd like.

One bit of bad news: He has an ear infection! He really did not show any symptoms beyond the usual daycare sniffles. He will start antibiotics today and we'll see the Doctor again in two weeks to make sure it has disappeared.

James also received another round of shots- flu vaccine (regular not H1H1), Hepatitis A, and the HIB (Haemophilus Influenzae type B). Poor James. I had to help hold him down for the shots but the flu vaccine was a nasal dose. Jim was missed- he is on a business trip in Philadelphia.

Oh, and probably early next year we'll start him with the dentist and eye doctor. I already asked about the eye doctor at the Blaine Eye Clinic and the child-friendly doctor is on maternity leave until January, which is a good time for us to take James too. Dentist? I'm going to a new dentist tomorrow in Blaine, so I'm going to feel out that option.

Ear infection #4

More ear infections for Baby James. I stayed home sick today after suddenly becoming sick last night- I was shivering, horrible sore throat, bad headache. So I'm lying in bed today, miserable, and Sandra called at 11am. James was at daycare and he had a fever. His cheeks and ears were a bit red so she was going to give him some Tylenol and put him down for his nap. She was going to keep me updated.

I got on the phone with Jim and then the doctor, we made an appointment for 2:40, thinking that if it was an ear infection again we needed it addressed ASAP. So yeah, double ear infections. The doctor thought they looked particularly painful so she gave Jim the prescription for a higher dose antibiotic and gave him a prescription for ear drops that would give instant relief.

James actually seemed okay tonight. He ate well enough and was pretty content to sit with me, watching TV. He's usually pretty independent but tonight he sat close to me, reclining on my leg.

Well, wish us luck that tomorrow is a better day- both for me and for James. I'm assuming we're both staying home tomorrow since I'm still sick and James needs time to recover.

Just in time for the weekend

Double ear infections. Ugh. Doctor confirmed this Friday afternoon, after I had to pick up James from daycare.

More later.

Uh Oh!

James' eye is red and puffy again. No waiting this time, I immediately made a doctor's appointment for this afternoon. We see a different doctor at 4pm.

Another Uh Oh is that Sandra just called me unexpectedly. This scared me! She was just calling to me that one of the little girls went home sick today with a temp of 103, and one other little girl hasn't been to daycare for two days because she is sick too. Let's hope that something is not going around!

She said James is fine- acting normally and no temp (its 100.3 but that's a high normal). She's keeping an eye on his temp though. I think she called too just so I would have all this information for the doctor this afternoon. When I pick up James today I'll probably fly in and out of Sandra's house, so I'm glad she did call.

I do kind of think that James might have a reaction to tomatoes. We had spaghetti yesterday and I kind of was waiting to see if he would have bad diarrhea again. I'm not positive that there is a connection, but its funny that his eye acted up again. Who knows if food allergies work like that anyway.

We had a great family night last night. We were all sitting on the floor while James played with his newest Baby Einstein book (it makes sounds). He kept pressing the music buttons over and over, and each time Jim and I would "dance" to the music. James would imitate us and laugh. We just look at him and think he's the cutest

5pm update: The doctor was very nice, we may need to switch to her! Anyway, James' temp went up to 101.7 or so, his ears needed to be cleared out of earwax, and when that was done she found an ear infection! So we are back on antibiotics. The red, swollen eye is unexplainable. It should clear up soon. Our weekend will probably be at home, away from others. James has been exposed to strep too- we found out that the second little girl went to the doctor and had strep. Well, James will no doubt be healthy by Monday.

Poor Baby!

James continued his crabby streak and now we know why. This morning James woke us up with very sad, loud cries. We took his temperature and it was 101.9- not really high but reason enough for him to be upset. We gave him more Baby Motrin and a bottle. He was crabby all morning, not his usual self.

Late in the morning, after his nap, he was again very hot and we took his temperature. It was 104! Jim called the doctor's office and they wanted us to come in, since his temperature was high. An hour or so later we saw the doctor and he found that James has ear infections too :( He is now on antibiotics.

James has been sick, crabby, and very clingy all day. We were glad to cuddle our little one. I can't remember the last time James let me hold him on my lap, rocking him. It was sweet but so sad because he must be in pain! He's refused foods for the past two days too.

On Saturday I *knew* that something was wrong. James went to Minneapolis with me for some shopping and he was off. I should have trusted my Mama instincts that something was wrong. Maybe he wasn't quite sick yet, but he wasn't himself. I thought I was being a worrywart, but I guess I was right to sense that something wasn't quite right. I won't doubt myself again.

I'm already planning on staying home from work on Monday. He might not be contagious but he's needing constant attention. I would also worry all day that he's needing me or that he's still feeling miserable. James is always our first priority.