Milk and Fevers

I know, I know.  I owe you pictures.

Can I give you a few stories instead?!  Just until I can find 15 minutes of time to myself to sneak into the office, download my camera and upload recent pictures of the kids?...  

Thanks.  I knew you would understand.

Ellie's milk protein intolerance had led us to trying soy formula for a few days recently, and it seemed to take away her gas issues.  However, after 2 days of the new formula, she had a bloody diaper and when I called, the doctor squeezed us in an hour later.  We are still unsure of what exactly caused the bleeding, but we suspect a fissure.  Apparently, most babies that have a milk protein intolerance also have a soy protein intolerance.  After we moved her from breastmilk to formula, her poops became more solid (relatively).  The transition was hard on her little system.  After the bleeding continued off and on for another day, I was instructed to move her to a more broken down formula by Enfamil called Nutramigen.  If you think breastmilk is 'liquid gold', you are wrong.  THIS STUFF IS.  Because that is what it seems to cost.  But Ellie's digestion issues seem to have evened out, so that is what we will be feeding her.  She's developed a stubborn diaper rash that seems to really bother her, unless her diaper is dry and she has tons of Desitin on.  So in addition to her 24K formula, she is blowing through diapers.  We all know girls are expensive, but this one might set a new record. 

Sorry, I just turned this blog into a monologue about poop.  I will not do that again, although... I am a mom, and this is what large parts of my day revolve around.  

That was last week.  The weekend was fun and we went to Cosley Farm and the park.  We met friends at the new frozen yogurt place in downtown Wheaton - 'YoYo Land'.  Everything seemed to be evening out, and I decided to take the kids on Monday morning to the lake house to meet up with my parents, grandparents and aunt/uncle/cousins for a quick visit.  My sister stayed overnight on Sunday with us so that she could help us get packed and drive with us Monday morning.  Robbie had been feverish all night and was clingy and glassy-eyed when he woke up.  But we headed out anyways.

The upside to the trip was that we got to see a lot of family we don't get to see very often - my cousins who are actually much younger enjoyed playing with Robbie, and everyone got to meet Ellie for the first time.  

The downside was that Robbie ended up spiking such a high fever Monday night at the lake house that he was barely able to sleep because he kept having febrile seizures, on a small scale.  His body would periodically convulse as he slept, and he would wake up in the middle of it and be scared to death and start crying until it subsided.  I felt awful for him, and was quite scared myself even though I knew that febrile seizures are common in young kids.  

So while this is all happening, Ellie was also having a hard time getting herself to sleep and I couldn't figure out why.  I would run from room to room between the kids, trying to soothe each of them.  At my breaking point, it was 1:3oam and I was down to my last trick - slinging Ellie and pacing  the bedroom.  I heard Robbie start to cry again and had no idea what I was going to do, when my parents came in and announced that they were going to take care of Ellie for the night for me so that I could take care of Robbie.  They figured out that it was her diaper rash keeping her awake, and since I had given them the same trouble as a baby, they knew just what to do for her!  She had a pretty decent night after that, sleeping between feedings.  

I ended up bringing Robbie up to my room to sleep, so that I could keep a close eye on him. I gave him juice with ice in it, and kept a cool washcloth on his head.  He was miserable between convulsions and vomited once.  Then he cashed out, exhausted, at 5:30am and we slept until 9:30am.  Like kids do, he bounced back the next morning and ate a big breakfast and played until his nap a few hours later.  

Last night both kids slept just fine.  Thank goodness.  Robbie is taking his second nap of the day right now, and just clocked 5 1/2 hours between both naps, which is the only way I was even able to blog at all!  So that is what we've been up to, and why I've neglected our poor blog.  

I will get pics up as soon as I can - both kids look so different even to me, just in the last week or two.  Ellie's starting to fill out in her face, although her arms and legs are still skinny-minnie.  Robbie makes these funny faces because of the teething - he squares off his lips and you can see all 8 of his front teeth, and walks around like that for the better part of the day.  His hair is getting unruly, but I'm afraid to venture out to the kids salon for a trim with him and Ellie by myself!  We will have to find time though, because this weekend is a BIG WEEKEND - Grammy and Papa Livingston and Uncle Ryan are coming to visit!!!