Archive for February, 2008
There goes the “Mother-of-the-Year” Award…
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I gave Natalie a nosebleed. In an attempt to clear her clogged nose with saline and a bulb syringe, I gave my daughter a nosebleed.
Chris, bless his heart, keeps telling me how easily noses bleed and to let it go.
In reality, as guilty as I feel for Natalie’s prolonged ear infection and mom-induced nosebleed, I really feel lucky and grateful. Overall, Natalie is extremely healthy. I can’t imagine how tough it must be to cope with caring for a child with chronic health problems.
Let’s hope tomorrow is trauma-free and poor Natalie gets a break from people sticking things in her ears and nose.
Ear Still Infected
Poor Natalie. We went back to the doctor’s office this morning after another sleepless night and discovered her ear is still infected. The last doctor we saw didn’t think it was necessary to check her ears after the last infection, so it’s possible that it’s a new infection, but we’re guessing this is a continuation of the last one. She seemed to be getting better…she was in a good mood, no more ear tugging, sleeping okay, although her nose was still yucky/runny. Then we were trying to get her schedule adjusted to getting up earlier before starting daycare, and her sleep patterns got completely out of whack. Or at least I thought that was the problem. Now that I look back, her sleep became a problem as soon as she finished the course of antibiotics, which was also the same time that she began rebelling against diapering, bathing, and dressing. My guess is the medicine was enough to make her feel almost better, but she must have still been in pain when lying down. Poor Natalie. I feel so guilty.
To make matters worse for a sick, cranky, tired girl and a tired, frustrated Mama, the doctors visit today was horrific, thanks to Dr. McConlogue. We saw her once for Natalie’s 6 month check-up and I didn’t care for her, but I didn’t think we needed to actively avoid her either. This is the 6th time we’ve gone in to have her ears checked and it has never once been a problem—Natalie’s never fussed or cried. That’s because none of the previous doctor’s have ever required that Natalie be physically restrained during the exam. Dr. McConlogue wanted me to hold Natalie in a bear hug while she looked in her ears, which caused Natalie to fight a whole lot harder than she would have if we had just let her be. Natalie was already quite hysterical when the doctor announced that she couldn’t see past vast amounts of earwax, and she would need to clean her ears. I had to hold Natalie down and pin her arms above her head while the doctor shoved a sharp plastic instrument in her already infected ear. Natalie was in such a state I feared she might throw up and I was near tears myself. Needless to say, we will never see Dr. McConlogue ever again. I am kicking myself hard for not being more assertive.
After we left the doctor’s office, Natalie recovered pretty quickly and fell asleep in the car on the way home. She was so zonked that she didn’t stir at all when I transfered her from the car to her bed. I was even able to take her sneakers off without disturbing her.
Speaking of footwear, how adorable does Natalie look wearing Daddy’s big shoes? (Nothing like a cute picture of Natalie to lighten a post and put a smile on my face!)
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this new antibiotic will clear the infection. And I will bring Natalie back to the doctor at the first sign that it isn’t working. I’m adopting Lindsay’s mantra: “I will never attribute anything to teething, only to ear pain.” If only I had listened sooner!!
Snow Day!
We finally got some decent snow this winter! I was feeling guilty because Natalie doesn’t have a snowsuit, but we didn’t let that stop us from playing outside. We put her in her warmest pants, put plastic bags over her pants and boots, then put Baby Legs over the bags to keep them in place, and voilà…homemade snowsuit! Natalie had lots of fun crunching the snow with her feet and watching Daddy throw snowballs. We worried that the plastic bags would make her shoes too slippery, but she was actually able to walk just fine (meaning she didn’t fall down any more than usual).
Hair Care
Natalie’s hair is getting longer and harder to control. I’m not sure I could articulate why, but I don’t want to cut it. Maybe it’s the story my mom tells about my brother’s first haircut…As she tells it, he had the most beautiful blond ringlet curls in the back of his head and after his first haircut, his hair was straight. The beautiful curls never returned. I guess I’m afraid of altering or even of damaging Natalie…I already feel guilty as hell for the scar on her nose from her fall at 3 months. It’s faded, but still there. I know she’ll need a haircut sooner rather than later, so I’ll have to get over my issues!
We’ve started putting Natalie’s hair up in the “Pebbles” pony-tail at night. The first couple of nights, she slept for longer stretches than usual, which had me hopeful that hair tickling her face was the cause of all her night-waking. I was so excited that I didn’t blog about it for fear of jinxing it. Unfortunately, it must have been a fluke, because she’s back to her usual sleep patterns. Oh well, it still looks cute, and does a good job of keeping hair out of her eyes…
Today, Natalie insisted on wearing ALL of her hair clips:
Natalie’s Sweet Side
I thought I’d share how sweet Natalie is, just in case my last post had you thinking we had a terror on our hands! Aside from our battlegrounds, Natalie is kind and loving. Some examples:
Every morning, Natalie finds Chris’ glasses on the windowsill in the bathroom and brings them to him.
She blows Daddy kisses when we drop him off at the train station.
The other day at play group, Natalie found her friend Robert’s sippy cup. I asked her to give it to him, which she did. For the rest of the afternoon, whenever she saw his cup, she would run over to give it to him.
She says “please.” We’re working on “thank you.”
Last night we were looking at pictures of family we have on the wall. Natalie looked at a picture of Nama, said something close to “Nama” and did the “more” sign. (Nama has been away for the last couple of weeks and Natalie clearly misses her!)
She kisses her favorite characters in books.
She likes to share her food.
When we pick up Daddy from the train station, she gets very excited and says “Dada!” over and over. Then she says “Dada! Mama! Dada! Mama!”again and again. The inflection in her voice is so sweet, she might as well be saying “I love you.”
And how much does she look like Daddy!?!?!?
Looking extra stylish:
Nothing sweeter than a sleeping babe:
