Pain in the butt

After I posted the last Maddie update, she got sick. She had diarrhea and some vomiting. No fevers. It lasted way too long, poor baby. The diarrhea caused a major diaper rash. I'd never really seen diaper rash before, Fischer never had it, this was sooo terrible and appeared to be incredibly painful. I was trying anything and everything to relieve her pain, but the diarrhea kept coming, making it worse.

I had kept her lathered in Boudreaux Butt Paste, which has been my cream of choice for both kids. In fact, I credited Butt Paste for the fact that Fisch never had diaper rash... that and my amazing mothering skills -HA! Sorry. The rash started to look like tiny blisters which then popped... once there were open wounds, the Butt Paste seemed to be painful when applied to her tiny bum. The poor sweet thing screamed and looked at me in shock that I would do something to purposely hurt her! I cried too!

The wipes seemed to hurt her sore tush too. I tried everything to get her healed up. I started using wet paper towels and trying to pat her clean, I tried Vaseline, Desitin, Balmex, Neosporin, lots of baths (that she just kept pooping in - ew) and every combination of them that I could think of. Nothing really helped.

Finally the winning remedy was Balmex Healing Ointment and Maximum Strength Desitin. I put the Balmex on first and the Desitin on top... she was totally protected and started to heal. YAY! The great thing about that Maximum Strength Desitin was that it stayed on between diaper changes, whereas some of the others seemed to either get absorbed or rub off on the diaper.

Did you know that when you use diaper creams you are supposed to apply them like a paint rather than a lotion. You aren't supposed to rub them in. I didn't know that with Fischer.

Willow Africa and Daisy Fall

After Maddison was born, Aunt Beth came to the hospital to visit. She brought cute clothes for Maddie and a doll for Fischer. She told Fischer that he could feed "his baby" when Mommy feeds Maddie. He could hold "his baby" when Mommy and Daddy hold Maddie, etc. At the moment, Fischer seemed interested but not overly emotional about the doll. I have to admit that I wasn't really sure what to think about the doll either.

All of that has changed over the past few months. Shortly after we came home with Maddison, he named the doll Willow Africa. He began bringing her everywhere and taking VERY good care of her. He rocked her, held her, put her in the swing and the bouncer chair. He fed her (even attempted nursing her using the Boppy pillow and everything!), he slept with her, kissed her good night, sang to her, read her stories, buckled her into the car... AND Andy and I had to do all of those things (except the nursing part) to Willow also. He would change the story periodically about who her parents were, sometimes he was the dad and I was the mom, sometimes Willow came out of his tummy... but now he has settled in on the fact that Andy and I are Willow's parents and he is sometimes her brother and sometimes her cousin. He LOVES her. Now he has also added Daisy Fall to the family. She was a friend's doll that he chewed on when he was a baby, and we kept and replaced with a new one for his friend, Alexis. Now, according to Fischer, I have three babies (Maddie, Daisy, and Willow). They are all treated by him with the utmost respect. I mean, he kind of freaks out if I toss them to the side or once I had my leg on Willow and he burst into tears that I was "squishing her and she couldn't breathe"! GrandmaBetsy even made little pillows and blankets for them.


Not a great pic, but this is Fischer watching Cinderella with Willow (in blue) and Daisy (in yellow).

Here is Fisch and BFF with Daisy, the day BFF broke the news to Fischer that only "mommies" can breast feed. So he brought the Boppy to BFF and instructed her on how to do it. Luckily, BFF thinks that breastfeeding happens on your love handles (of which she has none) and over your clothes! Phew! Might I add, that BFF insisted upon washing her hands before holding Daisy and Willow for the first time. She and Fischer also had many heated discussions on just how to best make Willow stop crying... she was apparently a very fussy baby in the beginning.

So, I don't know if Fischer has transitioned and adapted so well with Maddison because of his dolls, or just because he is so sweet and tender.... but the unexpected gift of a doll, has been quite the blessing to him. Thanks Aunt Beth!

Now he wants car seats for them for Christmas! Now I must say, that even thought he loves these dolls and cares for them, and he loves the movie Cinderella, and he has a true admiration for pretty dresses and shoes... he does seem to have an opinion on what is for girls and what is for boys. He just doesn't seem to think that these dolls are girlie.

Writer's Block

I seem to be having a terrible time coming up with something to write about these days. I start to think of things, and then can only think of a sentence or two OR I plan out an entire thought-provoking (yeah right) post in my head while I lay in bed at night, and then can't think of it in the morning. So I thought I'd brainstorm out all of the little thoughts, in hopes that a deep and powerful post will be around the corner.

• Fischer has his new big boy bedroom furniture and twin bed. SOOO cute! He's been a little anxious to fall asleep in it the past few nights, but it is getting better. He is still worried about monsters... even though we've reassured him that monsters are afraid of dogs, therefor there is no way we could have any monsters in our house.



• The baby's room is coming together beautifully. My mother-in-law painted it pink and green to compliment the bedding. It is so sweet and girlie in there. I am soo NOT girlie, but I'm lovin' this!


• She'll be here in less than 4 weeks! I'm scheduled to have a c-section in less than a month!! I can't wait to see her. Hopefully upon seeing her we may actually come up with a name for her!



• I have something called Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction which is making life a little waddly these days. Basically, my pelvis is moving and separating. It often hurts to move and it is the worst while trying to turn over or change positions in bed... which I feel like doing about every hour. It also makes walking difficult, especially when I overdo it like today (t-ball, farmer's market, Costco, Home Depot). It should slowly go away after the baby is born. I'm worried about having a c-section with this because the drugs could mask the pain and make me hurt it worse and/or being immobile for an extended period of time can exacerbate it also. I've got to talk to my OB next week about it.
  


• I also injured my knee (doing nothing... I just knelt down on the floor) and now have something called Lateral Patella Plica Syndrome which should be remedied with anti-inflammatories. I went to my sports med doc yesterday and he prescribed Celebrex for 9 days, saying that it won't hurt the baby. I couldn't get a hold of my OB to double check that, so I called a doctor friend. He said to definitely NOT take the Celebrex in the third trimester because it could cause premature closure of the fetal ductus arteriosus and renal ADRs in the fetus. Additionally, NSAIDs are linked with premature birth. So I guess, now I need to talk to my OB about that and whether or not a cortisone shot in my knee would be a safer route.


• Andy and Fisch harvested a huge bowl of beautiful juicy strawberries from the garden today. Andy is continually amazed at the difference in flavor between ours and the grocery store's. Yum! We've been chowing them down like crazy.



• Slugs were taking over and completely consuming everything in veggie garden... I went out early in the morning to find at least 30 slugs in my little green bean bed, half of the green bean plants were totally missing! We're not talking about a few holes in the leaves of this plant or that, we are talking about complete - without a trace- consumption of green bean plants, cantaloupe plants, cucumber plants, watermelon, etc. So we had to forgo being completely organic in order to save the crops. I bought Sluggo, which I found in the organic section of the garden store... but still. Of course I put that stuff all over right before we had 2 straight weeks of rain...so who knows. I do think it helped a little, but I may have to reapply.


• I think that I am one of the only people enjoying all of the overcast skies and rain this summer. My big pregnant body is loving the cooler June temps.

Well I hope that dull list sparked something intriguing for later. Happy rest of the weekend to you!

Recently...

BFF's baby brother was born on May 2! He is absolutely beautiful! Here is my mom holding him:

Andy bought Fischer his first pair of real hockey gloves! Fischer thinks they are great but has a really hard time actually holding the stick with them on. By the way... only the best hockey players practice in their underwear and fireman rain boots!

Fisch has been wearing his fireman clothes everywhere... then complaining that he doesn't like when people look at him!

Fischer tried out mini-basketball... and HATED it. Then he tried mini-soccer and didn't like that one too much either... begged for basketball, go figure. Hopefully mini T-Ball will go well!

Fischer started survival swimming lessons and SCREAMED and CRIED through the first 5 lessons... then suddenly on the sixth, he was all smiles, high-fives and kept saying "I'm good!" Hooray... Mommy couldn't have taken one more lesson of BOTH of us crying! Here he is practicing his floating in the bathtub.

My wonderful friends threw me the sweetest baby shower... so many cute pink things! It was so much fun!

I seem to have permanently borrowed the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man's feet... I'll spare you the picture! 2 more months!

Kaia had surgery on Monday to remove a lump from her neck... $850 and 2 drain tubes later...

Naming baby

Andy and I CANNOT agree on any names. The same thing happened when I was pregnant with Fischer. Maybe we had both been teaching too long... every name was associated with someone else's kid. We had input from everywhere - including the name jar that my second graders had with all of their name suggestions (which were mostly their own names). We were getting desperate. One day as we drove down the road we started reading random words and names off of business and street signs, that's where we came up with Fischer. We also liked Micah. My mom thought that naming the baby "Fischer" would be a huge mistake. She spent about 30 minutes describing what sort of therapy he'd need for being named that! Of course, she hung up the phone and called 10 minutes later, saying that "Fischer" was a fine name and she would be supportive of any name we choose. What?? My dad must have talked to her! ;)

Anyway, by the time we got to the hospital we still hadn't decided. In fact, Fischer was born on a Monday and we didn't actually choose his name till Wednesday!



Top names for our baby girl (as of today),

I like: Clara, Maya, Hannah, Presley...

Andy likes: Taylor, Jessie, Abby, Allie, Sydney, Willow, Rain...

Some family names (on my side) are: Daisy, Marie, Ann, Lillian, Virginia, Helen



We're open to suggestions.

Sicky weekend

Lazy Saturday and Sunday. Andy is at a conference for work all weekend, and Fischer has a cold. Right now he is laid up on the couch with apple juice, snacks, blankets, books and movies.

I am just hoping that I don't have a cold. I think it is just furious allergies... it is that time of year! I don't want to be sick because BFF's momma is about to have her baby any day now! I REALLY want to be able to visit, and we'd love to have BFF hang with us while her mom and dad are in the hospital with baby "mystery" (we don't know the gender yet). Of course we can't afford to get BFF sick when she'll be going home to her newborn sibling. She is very adamant about taking care of that baby all by herself! It will be fun to watch BFF and baby go through that transition before we go through it ourselves in a few months.

Guess what?

Sorry for the racy photo! ;)