On the road to recovery.

As you can see Julian is back to his normal spirits.







He is still wheezing a bit so we're continuing to do albuterol treatments every 4 hours. My fingers are crossed that this is an isolated incident and not a new state of affairs around here.

My sister and brother-in-law are visiting for the weekend and Julian was hugging and cuddling with my sister within minutes. It is amazing...we've had this with our cats for our entire lives, that my cat took to Sharon and her cats have taken to me. I was still shocked to see it with Julian. Is it our looks? Our voices? Or just our general energy and vibe?



Zinnia and Steph stopped by to say hi on their way home.





It looks like they'll be back with greater frequency in the near future because they rented a place here so they can get some more city time in addition to their country time. Ooh, remember Country Time? We used to eat the powder straight out of the can at summer camp. I wonder if they still make that?

Anyway, life is on its way back to normal, whatever that means.

Here are a few more photos from today.

Julian eating his salmon dipped in berry flavored fish oil. Mmmmm.



And on that note, I forgot to mention when we were in the hospital, the floor secretary noted J's food allergies (rice, corn, soy and dairy to start) and brought us to the food closet to show us what options there were. I told her I stopped home to get food for him so not to worry about it, and she asked what he eats as a rule. After explaining to her open mouthed awe that he eats cereal and greens or eggs for breakfast, sauteed veggies and chicken or fish most other meals, and fruit for snacks, she proceeded to tell anyone we passed, "you wouldn't believe what this lady feeds her baby...tell 'em!, tell 'em!" I felt like a circus freak. Why is it so weird to feed your child actual food?

Here's a pic of Julian watching his signing video, which he loves.



Please note the close-up below of his slack jaw and glazed look.



This is why so far, no TV- only this signing video. I'm sure one day we'll cave with some classics like Plaza Sesamo and The Jungle Book. For now though, it's only the signing video (Lori talked me into it) and as he is indeed learning the signs, I'm ok with it, mostly.

As for this last shot, I hope that we can count on Kyle and G to teach Julian to skateboard and surf, because we have no idea, and from the look on his face after he turned over the tray to his high chair and started to ride, I suspect it will be in his future.



Thanks again for all the calls and notes about Julian. I appreciate your thoughts and love.

350 lb weight limit

Ok, no photos, but an update.

Julian has been a very very sick little man. He got some nasty virus which then triggered some severe asthma. He had not, by the way, ever had asthma before. We wound up in the hospital overnight last night. It broke my heart and I am still walking around in a panic that the kid is going to stop breathing.

Here are the highlights of the horrific night.

1. Waiting at the emergency room. I must have said to Jon 50 times "DON'T let Julian touch anything" worrying that he would get MRSA or some horrendous infection in the old and moderately dirty waiting room. That said, Julian was coughing and spewing all over the place. The waiting room was full of old people slumping in their chairs and people lying on benches covered with their coats, clearly having been there for an extended period of time- and hopefully not catching whatever nasty thing Julian was dishing out.

2. After we went back and told our story to the nurses assistant, the nurse, the resident, and the doctor (one at a time, I may add...), Julian had several nebulizer treatments. He was beyond exhausted after 2 days of waking himself up coughing every 15 min or so. Thankfully our little man finally fell asleep in Jon's arms. Not 10 minutes later the nurse and her assistant came into the exam room where we were waiting to find out if we would need to be admitted to the hospital for the night.
"Do you have to wake him?" I asked.
"Well, we have to take his vitals which shouldn't be a problem, but the rectal thermometer might wake him up." (might?)
"Is there any way we can do an axillary temp since he only has a slight fever?"
"Oh, sure, would you prefer that?"
NO, I WANT YOU TO WAKE UP MY SICK SLEEPING BABY BY STICKING SOMETHING IN HIS ASS.
"Yeah, if you could do it that way it would be great..." For once I was able to have a diplomatic moment. (See mom, I knew I could do it!)

3. The resident was amazing. Sweet, lovely, kind. The attending physician in the ER was seriously, I kid you not, a carbon copy of the really obnoxious, snarky, rude doctor on Scrubs (Dr Cox.) It was unreal.

4. I go home to pick up clothes and food for us and Jon and the baby go to the room at the children's hospital. We wait for the respiratory therapist, who is supposed to be on her way, until 11:00. This would have been very late for the baby but for the fact that he was on steroids, which is the equivalent of baby crack. He was the fricking Eveready bunny climbing in and out of the drawers, running up and down the halls. It was remarkable. We finally got him down at 11:30 and the RT came at midnight. She wanted us to move the baby to the crib from the day bed to do an exam. I talked her into doing it in the bed and she said he didn't need to do a treatment at that time after all. Great, except that 20 min later the nurse came in and stuck a swab up Julian's nose so far that I thought she was trying to sample his brain. The poor baby was awakened with a swab in his nose and a penlight in his eyes. Nice. We rock.

5. Julian was attached to a monitor that would beep when his oxygen was getting a little low. Not that they felt the need to do anything about it (until the RT came back to give him an albuterol treatment at 4:30 "He sounds rough.") But we got to listen to the lovely beeping all night regardless.

6. OK. Now for sleeping arrangements. Jon was in the small day bed with Julian. I had two options: 1. Sleep in the fold out chair. 2. Sleep in the crib. I obviously chose the chair. It was soooo uncomfortable. So after carefully checking and finding that the crib had a 350 lb weight limit, I did it. I moved to the crib. I slept in the crib. Can't tell you how shocked the nurses were to find me there. In the morning I asked and yes, there have been moms that have slept in the crib with their babies, but to their knowledge, no mom has chosen to sleep in the crib alone. I am happy to say Jon did not have a camera.

7. In the morning we called the nurse to ask them to take the oxygen monitor off of his toe so he could walk around. She came in with a mask and a full body suit and gloves to tell me that we were in isolation and couldn't leave the room. That was new news to me. The baby was sobbing because he wanted to walk around. I was ready to pack up right then and there. Luckily the doctor(s...all 8 of them, as it is a teaching hospital) came in and said it wasn't necessary to be in isolation. Go figure.

Overall, I am very grateful that the doctor at the clinic sent us to the hospital. I am very grateful that we spent the night and had such competent eyes watching over the baby. I am very grateful that we were both able to stay with him overnight. And most of all, I am very grateful that my baby is no longer suffering. It was beyond awful.

Thanks everyone who sent good thoughts, prayers, love, and energy our way. I'll post again tomorrow after our follow up appointment.

First fever.

No photos because I couldn't even bring myself to take a photo of my poor moaning, feverish, coughing, wheezing, whining, sick as a dog baby. I could barely hold him because I kept crying I felt so badly for him. I'm sure this was not helpful big picture.

We gave him some children's Tylenol to get the fever down a little (was 102+) and it didn't work very well so we gave him children's Motrin, which promptly gave him hives, which we then treated with Benadryl, poor little monkey.

So Jon brought J to the doctor today (or actually, the nurse practitioner standing in for the doctor), I happened to call his cellie right as she was giving the advice so I got to sit in. Didn't realize I was on speaker phone or I wouldn't have actually laughed out loud when she said that his ears were red and he was wheezing a bit (um...really?) and he would get better faster with antibiotics but "some parents object" to this approach.

Well...here's hoping she gets a fricking subscription to the American Academy of Pediatrics e-journal or something because antibiotics are not actually recommended for garden variety ear infections anymore. Here is a link to the NYT article that discusses it for anyone interested. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E5D7113DF934A15752C1A960958260


I had to request a nebulizer treatment for him, "do you think it might be helpful?" I asked as if I had no idea. She went ahead and ordered that and I suggested we could take the prescription for the antibiotic and fill it if we felt it was necessary in a few days. We'll pick up an inhaler for him tomorrow and I'll use it if we need to.

Good reminder that we're lucky that our regular pediatrician (who wasn't in today) is not only open to alternative medicine, but actually smart and well read. As a matter of fact, the last time Julian had an ear infection and I offered up that we'd prefer not to do antibiotics she looked horrified and said that she would never give a baby antibiotics for an ear infection as it is just as likely to go away on its own. Would it be too presumptuous to send the NP a copy of the recent research article? I think I'm going to do it...

OK, one photo from before the dreaded sickness...for the junkies.

Back in the saddle.

Whew, found the cord. It was at the bottom of my 'to be filed' drawer. Could have been ages before it turned up were it not for my frenzied filing fit this afternoon. No idea how it got there, but I suppose I have better things to wonder about.

This post will be a quick update and some photos. I'm sure y'all will live without too many details about the last few weeks...

So, Superbowl Sunday Jon took Julian to Kyle, Pam, and Shay's house. Julian had his first experience with the TV since coming home from Guatemala. I arrived with 5 min left in the game (was at work all day) to see Julian standing 4 feet from the TV, fist in the air, yelling at the top of his lungs. Oh how I wish I had a photo of that!

But I do have a photo of the other evening highlight...Julian's first spare rib. I was feeding him little bites but they were a bit spicy (courtesy of Matt) so I was being a bit tentative. Well, the captain would have none of that! He ripped the fricking thing out of my hand and gnawed every last bit off of that bone. Then he had 2 more. That's my boy, all about the meat!





Things have been absolutely lovely with Stephanie and Zinnia visiting for the last week. Julian loves having the baby around, and although I don't think Elwynn particularly cares for her, she is clearly relieved to have a break from Julian's attention for a while.

Julian of course wants to be in my lap if I am holding the baby.



And he fancies himself a helper...pulling the binkie in and out of her mouth.





He looks like such a big boy with daddy's backpack.



I keep telling him that it is very hard to make a top go with his mouth.



We got a new cabinet and Julian likes to climb into it. I set an unfortunate precedent by getting in there with him earlier this week. Jon was able to squeeze in, but just barely. The kid's gonna be pissed when I put my stuff in there this weekend and we put the cabinet locks on.



And yet another example of Julian not being influenced by gender role expectations (like his dad). Pink vacuum? No problem! A loaner from Shay, and by far his favorite toy right now.



I just love this shot. My boy is flipping gorgeous if I do say so myself...



-S

cord AWOL!

we got a new desk and the cord to download photos has gone missing. i didn't want to bore too many people with a 'word only' post so i've been putting off posting. didn't realize it had been so long! check back by the 15th, if i can't find the cord by then i'll get another. and sooo many new cute photos on the way!!!!

-s

It's so quiet!!

The boys are spending a few extra days in NJ visiting family and I flew back last night for a few glorious days of mama R&R. I spent a delicious day cleaning and organizing to my heart's desire. So far: did 9 loads of laundry, put a fresh finish on the wood floors, re-organized the library, cleaned out my email box, cleaned the wood stove with bacon grease (an internet suggestion for ridding it of rust spots- worked great but now my house smells eerily like i-Hop), cleaned out the fridge, and ordered everything on my 'to get' list from amazon. Just finished my dinner- popcorn, fresh sqeezed oj, organic baked french fries and a turkey hot dog. Mmmmmm....

Right now I'm waiting for my friend to swing by after work so he can open a can of Tung Oil for me since my strapping husband is not here to do it. I've got my heart set on shining up our counter tops and wood stove pad with it. I tried about 30 times to get the damn thing open and I think I may have actually pulled a muscle in my shoulder.

Success! My 180 lb martial arts teacher friend needed pliers and all his strength to get it open, I don't feel so badly now.

My nephew's bar mitzvah was wonderful. It is hard to believe that he is 13. He has turned into such a lovely young man. And it was so great to see both close and extended family. I did, however, get a bit overcooked by the whole weekend. I am the sensitive sort and too much stimulation can easily put me over the edge. There was a parade of people to meet, visitors to see, dinners, luncheons, photos, presentations, meetings, etc. what felt like every second. Don't get me wrong, it was great to see everyone but W-H-E-W was it insane. The little one did just great. It's tough though, knowing that he's so easy going that his signs of stress are not apparent to friends, family, etc and that it is my/our responsibility to read his sometimes subtle cues that he needs a break, doesn't want to be picked up etc.

Here are a few of the weekend highlights.
(More photos to come when hubby gets home with the camera. These are from brother Mike.)




Highlight #1. Tess.
Tess (the adorable blond in my husband's arms) will be 3 in June and is Julian's cousin. She is a tiny little pixie, and smart as a whip.
Julian was enamored.
On our last morning I arrived at the table and sat with Julian, Tess, and a mess of Jon's family while Jon went to get some fruit for Julian. I announced with my typical snarky humor that Julian had fallen off of the bed that morning and I was pretty sure that Jon threw him.
When Jon came to the table Tess called out in her tiny voice..."Jon, Jon, Jon?" I pointed out to Jon that Tess was speaking to him and everyone quieted down and Tess with furrowed brow asked, "Jon, did you throw Julian off of the bed?" her high estimation of Jon plummeting by the second. I have to keep reminding myself that I'll need to be careful with the literal minds of toddlers.

Among other fabulous Tess comments was to my cousin's S.O.
"Norman," she proclaimed "you don't have very much hair." I missed that one...much to my chagrin.

Highlight #2. The cousins.
Cousin Amy is Jon's first cousin's daughter which makes her his first cousin once removed. Amy is a riot. Her parents are a riot. Her siblings are a riot. We had the privilege of joining their family for a ski trip to Vail about 3 years ago and with the exception of Jon fracturing and dislocating his shoulder, it was one of the best vacations I've ever had.

Amy's son Kevin loves his Nana soooo much that he has decided that his favorite new discovery, his balls, should be shared with his Nana. During the bar mitzvah his father Brian took him to go potty and when he was done he refused to pull his pants up and had a melt down yelling "Show Nana balls, show Nana balls!" Retrospectively, Brian was relieved that Kevin's request wasn't audible to the celebrants, and Nana was relieved that Kevin's father was able to assuage him and she didn't need to excuse herself from the ceremony to actually view said balls.

Highlight #3. Throwing away the bread crumbs from my mother-in-law's cupboard.
I love organizing. I love making room. I love throwing stuff out. I was able to convince my M-I-L to throw away a container of bread crumbs dated 1992, and also the Italian spice mix that smelled like cardboard and had a price stamp of 39 cents. I told her that the best present she could ever give me was to let me clean out her cupboards. No go so far, but as doing this at my own mother's house was one of my fondest memories, I am hoping she'll give it a second thought for our next visit.

Highlight #4. Visiting with my parents.
My mom and dad took a 2 hour drive to visit with us for a few hours. I miss them so much. I seriously never laugh as hard as when I am with my family. If anyone out there has any influence over them, please encourage them to come out to visit soon.

Highlight #5. Connecting.
Although it may have been overwhelming, it was such a lovely gift to get to be with Jon's whole family. There is so much love and support there. I feel lucky to be part of the family.

A few photos more photos from Mike. We'll see what we have on our camera when Jon gets home tomorrow.


My father-in -law mocks me mercilessly because I can't seem to keep my mouth closed when I feed the baby.




Emma and her ear to ear smile. She's entertaining the idea of becoming an actor. I think she'll be great.

Captain McWhiner

Julian is starting to get frustrated when he doesn't get what he wants.
He sobbed for 10 minutes yesterday after I put the vacuum away, and we'd already been using it for 45 minutes. He was enjoying it so much that I found stuff that I didn't even know was possible to vacuum. Today we were looking at a magazine and JLEB saw an add for our vacuum and zoomed over to the door of the room where we keep it and started signing vacuum over and over again. Whining and actually crying when I didn't take it out. What is UP with that? Why would anyone love something that loud?

Sigh.

We're starting to work on self-feeding. I know Aileah has been letting Julian use a spoon for a while, but I am way too neurotic to let that that happen after the child is dressed for the day. I realize though, it's gotta happen or he'll still be eating with his hands when he's 35 (no cracks from you, mom.)

Here is JLEB eating his greens mix. Greens mix, by the way, is steamed chard, kale, spinach, and green peas blended up to a slurry. We mix it in, usually with his breakfast cereal, along with berry flavored fish oil. No, really, he loves it, look!







Laura was up visiting again. Julian has really taken to her.



Jon, for some reason, only put on the top of Julian's jammies. Kind of looked like a tux jacket so we snapped a few shots. I have the same pajamas btw, but I promise you wont ever see me in them on this blog.



Last photos are of Julian and me last night when I was on my way out for a few drinks with some girlfriends. The amazing dress was my mom's in the 1970s. Formally first hand evidence of the conspiracy by the fashion industry to make us buy more clothing. The dress is a size 8. I wear a size 2 or even a size 0 in some brands. A size 8 in 1977 is a size 0 now? Where will they go next? Negative sizing? "Do you have that skirt in a minus 6?" Huh? I have friends that are way smaller (I call it 'less curvy') than I am...do they have to shop at the tween department? What if they don't want their belly buttons showing?





cya!
-s

PS I just realized that today Julian has been home for 8 months. It is amazing how it seems like so much less time than that and so much more time than that all at once.